Asthma Home-Based Services

On this page:

Enhanced asthma care law/services
Toolkit
Health impact
Demonstration projects
Get started
MDH model
Make a referral

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Asthma Program encourages local public health (LPH) and other health-based agencies to incorporate asthma home-based services into their routine home visiting programs.

Home-based services are a unique opportunity for a health care professional to visit the asthma patient in their own home environment. Meeting with families at their home creates the opportunity to provide:

• Individualized patient education
• Review asthma action plans
• Assess patient’s questions in an environment they are comfortable in

It is important that asthma patients understand what triggers may cause their asthma to flare up and learn ways to reduce exposure or eliminate triggers as much as possible. What may trigger a person’s asthma is very specific to that individual. Some of the more challenging asthma triggers are inside the home. These include tobacco smoke, dust mites, mold, saliva and dander from furry and feathered pets and pests such as cockroaches and mice.

Home-based services afford more time with the patient and give the health care professional an opportunity to assess the home for potential asthma triggers. Health care professionals can use the results of the environmental home assessment to understand trigger exposure and better tailor a plan to support daily patient self-management.

Enhanced asthma care law/services

A new bill passed during the 2021 Minnesota legislative session expands medical assistance to cover “enhanced asthma care services.” Services include home visits and allergen-reducing products. Children who have poorly controlled asthma, as defined in the statute, and who are enrolled in medical assistance or Minnesota Health Care Programs are eligible for these benefits.

Home visits will only be covered if provided by “a registered environmental health specialist or lead risk assessor currently credentialed by the Department of Health, or a healthy homes specialist credentialed by the Building Performance Institute.” Products will be covered if “identified as needed and recommended” by the professionals authorized to perform the home visits or by health care professionals providing asthma care for the child.

Learn more:

• The bill can be found at: Minnesota Statutes, 256B.0625,subdivision 67: Enhanced asthma care services
• The Department of Human Service’s has created a Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) Asthma home evaluations and Allergen-reducing products for children FAQs (PDF) with more information about eligibility and what is covered under the new programs.

Toolkit

Asthma Home-Based Services Toolkit provides resources and educational tools to support LPH or other health-based organizations interested in developing asthma home-based service programs. Peer to Peer mentoring is available, by pairing up experienced LPH staff with agencies that are interested in providing asthma home-based services in their community.

Health impact

Projects conducted by MDH have repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of home-based services that include both asthma self-management education and home environmental assessments for people with asthma. Our model has demonstrated:

• A positive return on investment (ROI) – the ROI ranged from $5.25 to $1.61 for every dollar spent.
• Improved asthma control;
• Fewer asthma symptoms;
• Reduced missed days from school and work;
• Reduced use of unscheduled clinic, emergency department, and urgent care visits and inpatient hospitalizations.

In our most recent project, the number of missed school days was reduced by an average of 2.42 days in the previous 3-month period.  This is equivalent to increasing school attendance by 7 days over a 9-month school year. The number of work days missed was reduced by 0.48 days over 3 months.

Demonstration projects:

Past MDH Demonstration Projects, provide good examples to understand home visits, how they happen and what the impact could look like.

Get started

A referral, potentially coming from the patient’s prescribing health care provider, is the first step in getting an asthma home visit scheduled for a client/patient with poorly controlled asthma.

Health care systems, clinics, and providers struggle with sufficient time to provide asthma education in the clinic setting and they don’t have the opportunity to see what triggers may be affecting their patients asthma in the patient home. Home visits can provide asthma care that meets the medical and educational needs of the individual patient.  Medical treatment including daily medications in addition to effective management of asthma environmental triggers in the home can reduce the number and severity of an individual’s asthma episodes.

Home services are provided by a trained:

• Public Health Nurse
• Certified Asthma Educator (AE-C)
• Respiratory Therapist
• Community Paramedic
• Community Pharmacist

Some programs may utilize a Community Health Worker to follow-up with the initial recommendations, which support, and reinforce patient understanding and learning.

MDH model

This model presents one way of delivering asthma home-based services. Many other models can be adapted to different settings including public health organizations, community health centers, clinics, hospitals and schools. This model’s approach is consistent with the National Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Asthma (EPR-3).

Assessing asthma control and provide asthma self-management education (ASME)

• Managing asthma successfully means regularly assessing how well controlled a patient’s asthma is, monitoring symptoms and risk factors, and the risk for developing symptoms, and taking medications according to an individualized asthma action plan (AAP).
• Providing individualized asthma self-management education is included during an initial home visit and with subsequent follow-up visits. The goal is to assess and increase the patient’s ability to understand and follow their personalized written AAP and to take action according to the plan. 
• An AAP provides a list and guidance on what asthma medications the patient takes and when, what symptoms to watch for that indicate asthma is not being well controlled, and when to seek emergency medical care.
• The asthma educator also provides an overview of how asthma affects a person’s ability to breathe and gives them guidance on how to manage their asthma every day.

Environmental assessment of triggers in the home

• Assessment of the home environment – a walk through (visual assessment) that includes the person with asthma or a family member (the focus is on the sleeping area).
• Review the results of the home assessment with the individual and family – asthma triggers will be identified and action steps recommended to reduce or eliminate asthma triggers found in the home.
• Additional visits by local public health staff are scheduled to reinforce asthma self-management education and deliver /set-up recommended environmental products.
• Refer out or provide additional community resources as needed to support the social needs of the family and patient.
• Access local environmental health and healthy homes staff with expertise in housing to support more complex building and asthma trigger issues.

Make a referral

The following Minnesota programs currently offer in-home services for asthma. Please see contact information to inquire about services provided and current eligibility.