Community Health Workers in Delivery and Payment Transformation: How New Delivery and Payment Models Can Incentivize and Support the Use of CHWs

Community health workers (CHWs) have a proven track record of improving health outcomes, reducing health care costs, and addressing health disparities. As trusted members of their communities, CHWs provide linkages to social and community-based services that address nonmedical factors affecting health, help consumers manage their chronic diseases, and break down barriers to care.

The current attention on implementing delivery and payment reforms to improve the quality of care and health outcomes while reducing costs creates an important opportunity for greater integration of CHWs into the health care system and for providing more sustainable financing for CHWs. In this brief, we detail how health system transformation initiatives in Vermont and Oregon align with the value that CHWs provide and how these initiatives can incentivize CHW integration.