Community Health Worker Resources for States
As states transform their health systems, many are turning to community health workers (CHWs) to improve health outcomes and access to care, address social determinants of health, and help control costs of care. While state definitions vary, CHWs are typically frontline workers who are trusted members of and/or have a unique and intimate understanding of the communities they serve. NASHP has produced a number of resources, below, to support state efforts to incorporate CHWs into their health and health equity improvement work. If you would like to suggest a resource or share your state’s efforts, please contact Elinor Higgins.
Resources
- Innovative Community Health Worker Strategies: Medicaid Payment Models for Community Health Worker Home Visits, December 2017. This case study examines Medicaid payment models from Minnesota, New York, Utah, and Washington for CHWs providing in-home services that address healthy home environments.
- Innovative Community Health Worker Strategies: My Health GPS in Washington, DC, Seeks to Achieve Sustainable Funding and Whole-Person Care, November 2017. This case study explores the financing and roles of CHWs in My Health GPS, the District of Columbia’s health home program.
- Community Health Workers: Policy Opportunities for Population Health and Patient-Centered Health Care, October 2017. This NASHP conference session highlighted state strategies and experiences in CHW financing, training, and oversight. Speakers from Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin discussed the national CHW landscape and policy opportunities that could be explored to advance the CHW workforce in states. Please click on the speakers’ names to access their conference slides.
- State Community Health Worker Models Map, last updated August 2017. This map highlights state-level activities and policies to integrate CHWs into evolving health care systems in key areas such as financing, education and training, certification, and state definitions, roles and scope of practice. The map includes enacted state CHW legislation and provides links to state CHW associations, state agencies, and other leading organizations working on CHW policy in states. An instructional video, designed with support from the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is available to facilitate use of the map.
- Community Health Workers in the Wake of Health Care Reform: Considerations for State and Federal Policymakers, December 2015. This brief captures key themes that emerged during an October 2015 meeting of state and federal leaders to identify areas in which state and federal policy can align around the use of CHWs in transforming health systems to achieve better care, lower costs, and improved population health.
These resources were produced and updated with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Center for Healthy Housing, and The Commonwealth Fund.
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