gave no further details on

arly jolt as Lindor homered in the first inning. Indians fans went home happy as Michael Brantley the claim.
h the winning run in the 10th inning for a 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox. More in Sports and A15.
The Plain Dealer - 04/12/2017 Page : A01
see TALKS | A14

Health care White House

s, not tests, United Way plans to screen Hitler

to diploma poor patients for social needs comment
would apply in ’18
grades their senior year.
Doing a senior capstone
project or working at a job
or on community service
could also help a student
earn a diploma.
T h e n e w g ra d u at i o n
“p athways ” that avoi d
scores on state tests were
suggested by a special panel
of educators from across
the state that has studied
the graduation issues for
the last few months.
That panel had consid-
ered letting students’ ex-
tracurricular activities, like
clubs and athletic teams,
count toward graduation.
“This is a one-year op-
portunity to address a prob-
lem, a very real problem
that our superintendents
across the state have voiced
grave concerns about,” said
board member Pat Bruns,
of Cincinnati.
see DEEDS | A7
draws fire
Brie Zeltner
bzeltner@plaind.com
Starting in about a year,
United Way of Greater Cleve-
land will begin deploying its
2-1-1 specialists into seven
area hospitals and health
clinics to offer low-income
patients screening for social
service needs such as hous-
ing, food and transportation.
With a $4.5 million, five-
year grant from the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS), United Way
will partner with the Cleve-
land Clinic, MetroHealth,
St. Vincent Charity Medical
Center and Care Alliance
Health Center to screen
75,000 patients a year and
connect them to community
resources.
It’s part of a federally
funded effort called Ac-
countable Health Commu-
nities that’s testing whether
systematically screening for,
identifying and address-
ing the health-related so-
LISA DEJONG / THE PLAIN DEALER
Tim Grealis works the phones for the United Way call
center in downtown Cleveland.
cial needs of Medicare and
Medicaid beneficiaries will
reduce health care costs and
use of the healthcare system.
“If you have people who
have these social service needs
— lack of food or housing, or
if you can’t keep the lights on
— you can’t really focus on
health care outcomes,” said
Helen Forbes Fields, United
Way vice president of com-
munity impact and general
counsel. “If we address these
things, hopefully we’ll see
a correlation with reduced
health-care costs.”
“A significant amount of a
person’s health is influenced
by what happens outside
the health-care setting,” said
Dr. Brian Donley, Cleveland
Clinic chief of staff. “That’s
why this is so important.”
see NEEDS | A7
Spicer apologizes for
comparison to Assad
Jenna Johnson
and Ashley Parker
Washington Post
White House press sec-
retary Sean Spicer apolo-
gized Tuesday for remarks
that were viewed as down-
playing the atrocities of
the Holocaust.
During a briefing Tues-
day in which he criticized
Syrian President Bashar
Assad’s alleged use of
chemical weapons, Spicer
said that even Adolf Hit-
ler did not sink to that
level of warfare and “was
not using the gas on his
own people in the same
way that Assad is doing,”
despite Hitler’s use of gas
chambers to kill millions
of Jews and others.
see SPICER | A14

© 2017 The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written
permission of The Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
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The Plain Dealer - 04/12/2017 Copy Reduced to 93% from original to fit letter page Page : A07
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 MN The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com

DEEDS
from A1

Other board m
said they were an
approve quickly a
ease the concerns b
officials across th
that as many as a
the junior class wo
be able to meet the
pectations.
Despite broad
from board memb
changes are not
teed.
A school board c
tee approved them
morning, but the fu
backed off slightl
afternoon, by reser
right to adjust them
The biggest hu
that the changes
approval of the stat
ture. State law requ
scores to be a majo
determining if stud
graduate, so the em
LISA DEJONG / THE PLAIN DEALER alternative will nee
Jerome Harris, a resource navigation specialist, assists people in the call center at the United Way 2-1-1 in change.
downtown Cleveland. United Way 2-1-1 provides 24-hour assistance for social service needs, including connecting State Sen. Peg
people to health services, housing and shelter, food, clothing and legal support among other things. ner and State Rep.
Brenner, chairs of t

NEEDS those who have self-reported

from A1
The service will be avail-
able to Medicare and Med-
icaid recipients who are
residents of Cleveland, East
Cleveland and Warrensville
Heights, which have high
poverty levels. Partner hos-
pitals and clinics include:
33 Cleveland Clinic South
Pointe Hospital;
33 MetroHealth’s Main Cam-
pus, Broadway Health Cen-
ter, Old Brooklyn Health
Center and Thomas F. Mc-
Cafferty Health Center;
33 St. Vincent Charity Medi-
cal Center;
33 Care Alliance Health Cen-
ter’s Central Neighborhood
Clinic.
Over the next year, the
partners will prepare for
a May 2018 launch, said
Diane Gatto, United Way’s
2-1-1 director. Twelve 2-1-1
help center specialists will
be dedicated to the program,
with eight deployed to the
clinic sites to meet with and
screen high-risk patients
face to face.
High-risk patients are
two or more emergency de-
partment visits in the past
year.
CMS provided the screen-
ing questions, Gatto said.
The same questions will
be used by 31 other grant-
ees nationwide, including
Ohio’s only other recipient,
The Health Collaborative in
Cincinnati.
The service is similar to
a small pilot called Health
Leads launched about a year
ago in a few pediatric and
prenatal care offices at Uni-
versity Hospitals. There, pa-
tients are connected to com-
munity resources by a staff
of 24 student volunteers.
One of the big differences
between that pilot program
and the current CMS-funded
grant is the scale, Gatto said.
To receive funding, the hos-
pitals collectively had to
commit to screening 75,000
patients a year.
Hyland Software of West-
lake will provide technical
assistance to help integrate
the social service question-
naire, referrals and fol-
low-ups into a patient’s elec-
tronic health record. Doctors
will be able to see the infor-
mation and use it in their
care, Gatto said.
“Most of the time this type
of work happens by referral,”
she said. “This is systematic
screening. It’s a tremendous
effort and a credit to the
clinical partners that they
recognize the importance
of these things to a person’s
wellness.”
Most health-care provid-
ers have long known these
“unmet social needs” have
a huge impact on the health
of their patients, said Tracy
Carter, MetroHealth’s senior
director of state and federal
government relations.
“We know we can do bet-
ter in supporting these pop-
ulations,” Carter said. Metro-
Health had been working
with United Way 2-1-1 to
create a similar partnership
before the CMS grant oppor-
tunity was announced.
“Right now, the social ser-
vice is something we tend
to do after the care delivery
process,” Carter said. “This
Senate and House
tion committees,
makes sure that 2-1-1 and board that the leg
our social services are at the will seek a resolutio
table from the start so that graduation concern
there’s an increased chance not obligated to fo
of them getting the support board.
they need.” For the last
A patient with asthma, years, students i
for example, who lives in a would have to pass
home with mold, dust and Graduation Tests i
cockroach allergens will to graduate. Starti
have fewer asthma attacks the class of 2018, t
and hospitalizations if the requires students
home is healthy and safe, “points” toward gra
Carter said. based on their sc
“Healthcare has been very seven state “end-of
focused on disease treat- exams.
ment, and this allows us But students hav
to work on prevention and poorly on those ne
keeping people healthy so mon Core-based
that they don’t even need to which raised expec
come into the hospital,” Don-
ley said. “It’s been frustrat-
ing when it’s been difficult
to get patients the resources For more local
they need. This is exciting
for doctors and healthcare
news, go to
providers to have this op- cleveland.com/
portunity.”

© 2017 The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written
permission of The Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
April 12, 2017 9:25 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA