In places like rural El Paso, Texas, community health workers (CHWs) help thousands of underserved individuals obtain the food, housing and medical services they need to survive.
They speak the same language and often come from similar backgrounds as the community members they serve. During the pandemic, CHWs were an essential resource for vaccine administration and education, meal-delivery service and chronic disease management services.
Yet, while CHWs represent the epitome of value-based care—a model that emphasizes collaboration, efficiency, proactivity and accountability—these front-line workers are among the most underutilized and underfunded professionals in the U.S.
In spite of 2014 federal guidelines that allow Medicaid reimbursement for services provided by CHWs, organizations continue to experience financial barriers when it comes to implementing the CHW model and securing funding to appropriately staff CHWs for optimal impact, according to one 2021 study. Moreover, many CHWs across the nation feel they don’t have the appropriate support tools, like fundamental technology solutions, to further improve their work and community health outcomes.
Unless these things change, value-based care (VBC) will fail to live up to its potential. In other words, you can’t have VBC without CHWs.