Community Care Hubs as an Avenue to Improve Health Outcomes

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has prioritized the need to address social determinants of health to improve health outcomes for marginalized people. In this month’s issue of Health Affairs¸ authors discuss the use of community care hubs to help improve community health outcomes.

According to the authors, “Hubs can provide the connective tissue within a community to ensure that a coordinated system of health and social care is working equitably to meet an individual’s needs. A lead entity managing the hub operates an overarching structure to support other members by centralizing administrative functions and offering a single point of contracting for health care providers and payers. Given growing recognition of the role of health-related social needs in affecting health outcomes and new flexibilities in payment policy that are allowing for reimbursement of social care needs in certain circumstances (as discussed further below), health care organizations have been increasingly contracting with CBOs across the country over the past five years and some of these CBOs may have the capacity to act as hubs in their communities.”

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(Source: Health Affairs, November 29^th, 2022)