Sustainable Financing Models for Community Health Worker Services in Connecticut: Translating Science into Practice

Authors: Katharine London, Kelly Love, and Roosa Tikkanen

The focus of this report is on the financial sustainability of Community Health Worker (CHW) programs in the state of Connecticut. The goal of this research is to find a way in which Connecticut can develop an effective program that utilizes CHWs to improve patient health outcomes and achieve a level of positive financial return. This report worked within the boundaries of Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM), a federally funded grant to aid in transforming healthcare systems from state to state, in order to ensure a possible funding source for the resulting new programs. The report features four different targeted interventions that have been deemed a priority by the state including: asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and frequent emergency department users. Research from across the country was used to evaluate outcomes of pre-existing CHW programs, focusing on four case studies: controlling diabetes among Hartford Latinos, connecting individuals with complex health needs to appropriate health care services in the New London County, asthma control of children in Greater New Haven, and cardiovascular disease complications in Windham County. All of these studies revealed evidence that implementing new CHW programs in Connecticut is beneficial both to patient outcomes as well as financial return. This framework provides stakeholders a way to justify a new system that includes more CHWs.