Advancing the Profession and Sustainability of Community Health Workers

By Jeremy Lapedis, Edith C. Kieffer, Carrie Rheingans, and Marianne Udow-Phillips March 2018 Jeremy Lapedis, Harvard University, Edith C. Kieffer, University of Michigan, Carrie Rheingans, University of Michigan, and Marianne Udow-Phillips, University of Michigan Download printable version (Adobe PDF) Abstract Community Health Workers (CHWs) strive to bridge gaps between traditional healthcare providers and the communities they serve, but the community health worker profession faces several challenges to realizing its full potential. In the fall of 2017, the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation (CHRT) published an issue brief that focused on the ways State Innovation Model (SIM) grants have helped regions across the nation integrate community health workers into their healthcare systems. In this issue brief, CHRT enumerates the challenges states and health systems will need to overcome as they seek to develop a sustainable revenue stream for this work, to advance the community health worker profession, and to amplify the impact.