The number of regions participating in the Accountable Health Communities model to address gaps between clinical care and community services continues to grow. The most recently formed group represents 24 regional organizations, along with more than 150 community stakeholder groups, in a region spanning 21 counties in rural Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
The Accountable Health Communities model is based on emerging evidence that addressing health-related social needs through enhanced clinical-community linkages can improve health outcomes and reduce costs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is using the model to provide support to community bridge organizations to test promising service delivery approaches aimed at linking beneficiaries with community services that may address their health-related social needs such as housing instability, food insecurity, utility needs, interpersonal violence and transportation. CMS’ website lists 31 participating organizations.
A formalized partnership of Ballad Health, Healthy Kingsport and the United Way of Southwest Virginia serves as the backbone of the Virginia-Tennessee Accountable Care Community, which uses the collective impact model to align the efforts of all sectors of a community or region to accomplish shared objectives.
The impact of the opioid crisis is a core concern of the region. The Accountable Care Community will focus on supportive systems, programs and environments that nurture strong children and families to help them develop the key characteristics that will lead to success in life. The 150 community stakeholder groups identified the concept of personal resiliency as being a primary differentiator between those who succeed in life and overcome adverse experiences and those who do not.
The initial group of organizations and many more who will join the effort will focus on key markers of success, such as strong starts for children – which will be characterized by factors like 3rd grade reading proficiency and substance-free families. Improvement will be accomplished by focusing on the social and cultural systems that impact these issues over time. Ultimately, the group wants to see more children succeed in school, go on to college, have productive careers, and more families succeed in overcoming generational barriers to success in life.
“These focus areas operate at the intersection of health, economics and education, and it’s important to note that substance abuse is a common thread throughout all of them,” said Paula Masters, Ballad Health’s vice president of population health, in a prepared statement. “When we took a broad look at the most critical issues facing our region, it became apparent that the best way to tackle the intergenerational cycles of poverty and poor health that exist in many parts of our region would be to focus our efforts on children and families, and substance abuse prevention is clearly a critical element for success for these target populations.”
Healthy Kingsport and the United Way of Southwest Virginia will facilitate the Accountable Care Community’s efforts and help to spearhead its work. Ballad Health and its department of population health will co-lead and support the Accountable Care Community through technical support, evaluation, community engagement, resources and programming.
