Boston Alliance for Community Health

Initiatives and Activities

"When you add us all up, BACH's membership is in the thousands. Some of us are from the neighborhood and some of us are from an organization. We may not always agree on everything, but in the end, we all want the same thing: safe and healthy communities."

Sustainable Community Health Worker (CHW) Programs

In the comprehensive health planning process, Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) that BACH completed last year with the Boston Public Health Commission, we identified 5 strategic issues, one of which is:

“How can we improve coordination and integration of healthcare and community-based prevention activities and services?”

One of the key action steps we want to achieve is:

  • Work with medical providers, community-based organizations, funders and payers to develop sustainable community health worker (CHW) programs to reach those in need of care and those in care.

As part of working towards this objective, we have been participating in the Linkages Community of Practice, convened by MDPH which is also working on CHW implementation and sustainability.

The Community of Practice has established 2 short-term goals:

  1. MassHealth will include CHWs as providers in their contracts with Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and other accountable entities, and will provide financing for their services.
  2. CHW certification process is completed.

BACH believes that it is important that MassHealth see that community health advocates are in strong support of CHW certification and sustainable financing of this very important component of connecting clinical and prevention efforts. We urge you to attend one of these meetings or submit something in writing to MassHealth advocating for the inclusion of CHWs.

For written comments: Bertic-Cohen@MassMail.State.MA.US

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