Medicaid Savings Resulted When Community Health Workers Matched Those With Needs To Home And Community Care
An Evidence-Based Practice
Description
The Community Connector Program was created to test a mechanism of identifying vulnerable populations with unmet long-term care needs, using community health workers, and empowering people to gain access to home and community-based services. Provisions in the Affordable Care Act seek to expand community health workers use as a cost-effective component of the health care workforce.
Goal / Mission
The goal of this program is to reduce costs by using specially trained community health workers to help connect people with unmet long-term needs and/or those at risk of entering nursing homes to Medicaid home and community-based services.
Impact
Similar interventions may help other localities achieve cost-saving and equitable access to publicly funded long-term care options other than institutional care.
Results / Accomplishments
The intervention group had 23.8% lower average annual Medicaid spending (excluding prescription drugs) over 3 years vs. a comparison group because of a substitution of home- and community-based services for nursing home care, yielding a ROI of $2.92 per $1 invested after accounting for operating expenses.
About this Promising Practice
Organization(s)
Arkansas Community Connector Program
Topics
Economy / Government Assistance
Organization(s)
Arkansas Community Connector Program
Date of publication
Jun 2011
Location
Arkansas
For more details
Target Audience
Older Adults