Community health workers can improve health outcomes, reduce health disparities and contain costs, according to a brief authored by health policy experts at UMass Medical School and released by the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health).
The policy brief, Tomorrow’s Health Care System Needs Community Health Workers: A Policy Agenda for Connecticut, lays out steps Connecticut can take to cultivate and integrate a robust community health worker workforce in the state’s health care system. It was written by Katharine London, MS; Margaret Carey, MPH; and Kate Russell, MA; of the Center for Health Law and Economics, a unit within UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine division. CT Health commissioned the analysis.
“CT Health hopes that this research provides the evidence and blueprint needed to convince key decision makers in Connecticut that community health workers must be supported through certification, training and legislation if the state is to meet the changing needs of the health care system,” said Elizabeth Krause, CT Health vice president of policy and communications.
“Community health workers’ interventions help patients to understand and adhere to physicians’ instructions following a doctor visit. This is important as our health delivery model moves away from the traditional fee-for-service payment system to new value-based purchasing: paying for services in a way that rewards health care providers for delivering better care at lower cost,” Krause said.
Community health workers are trusted members of communities they serve as they typically share ethnicity, culture, language, socioeconomic status and life experiences with members of the community they serve, according to the brief. Although they do not deliver medical care, their cultural and linguistic understanding of their communities enables them to connect patients with health and community services, and to help patients take control of their health.
“Physicians often feel frustrated that they can’t influence their patients’ actions once they leave the office. Community health workers extend health care beyond the clinic walls. They help their clients manage their own health,” said London, a principal in the Center for Health Law and Economics and lead author of the brief.
The policy brief cites research showing that community health workers can improve health outcomes and contain costs. It argues that they can help clinical practices meet new quality standards—such as providing recommended preventive screenings and reducing the need for expensive emergency department visits—and earn higher payments from health plans. Furthermore, new federal rules make it easier for state Medicaid programs to pay for their services.
