Priority 3 -  Referrals for advanced health care - Hajja and Taiz The project will contribute to 3rd priority of the SA 2021,  by reducing morbidity and mortality of civilians, by providing cash for health (CHA) to the most vulnerable people with urgent need for life-saving health services, which are currently not provided/secured/covered free of charge by the MSP package - standard primary health care (PHC) or secondary health care (SHC) - at INTERSOS (or other actors) supported health facilities in the targeted districts in Hajja (Abs) and Taiz (Ma’afer and Al-Shamaytain). The project is not meant to be a stand-alone service but it is part of INTERSOS’ broader health and nutrition (HampN) sector programming funded by other donors in Yemen to address/remove the financial barriers preventing the access of beneficiaries to advanced levels of care. Financial barriers include indirect costs (e.g. transportation or accommodation costs, both for patient and caretakers) and direct costs (i.e. charges for treatment: service and drugs). 
The intervention focused on providing access to medical services will be integrated and complemented with protection services, ALREADY covered under different funding (DG ECHO, BHA and UNHCR) in the same areas, permitting a more comprehensive response to the needs of most vulnerable patients/cases, with focus on IDPs, including the most vulnerable population groups, including children, women/girls and persons with disabilities, inclusion of marginalized groups. 
Based upon 2020 data INTERSOS protection services, and in particular case management services for CP and PWSN cases with important medical conditions (IMC), a total of 800 patients will be assessed by INTERSOS medical team, of which 12% will be eligible for CHA, for a total of 96 direct beneficiaries (29% M, 40% W, 16% B, 16% G).
CHA is meant to be a one-time grant provided to individuals suffering from critical (acute/emergency/acute on chronic) health/nutrition life-threatening conditions, who do not have the means to access immediate and life-saving specialized medical services (it is not designed to help individuals or families meet their basic needs). The project will develop in 2 phases.
A preliminary market research and service mapping will be conducted to assess the availability and cost of specialized medical services in Health Facilities (HFs) in Hajja and Taiz, crucial to identify which HF provides the required medical service in the area where the patient is located. The regular update of costs breakdown and available services will be a fundamental component of CHA programming. Only HFs recognized and validated by MoPHP and the Health cluster will be considered (e.g. Abs DH, Khalifa DH, Al-Thawra GH and Al-Jumhouri GH). Once service providers and cost of health care will be set, the assessment and identification of referred beneficiaries will be conducted through INTERSOS medical team and the evaluation of eligibility and health care plan will be processed by dedicated Health Supervisors (supported with specialist consultation according to case-related final diagnosis), on a case-by-case basis. Beneficiaries could be referred in different ways: self-referral, referral from community outreach volunteers (protection) or community health volunteers (HampN), INTERSOS internal referral, referral from other humanitarian agencies providing services, etc. The evaluation of each case has the objective of determining whether the patient can access free-of-charge care or is eligible to receive cash assistance to cover direct and indirect costs of specialized treatments (according to INTERSOS SOP and set eligibility criteria – see annex). CHA is conditional assistance, provided through the combination of compensation (reimbursement) to HFs upon provision of the services and an unrestricted lumpsum provided to each patient for the costs of transportation and accommodation of the patient and caretaker. 
Patients will be supported by 900 US$ average (all included).