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New Research Shows How Enhanced Connectivity between Health and Social Service Systems Can Reduce Inequality, Inefficiency
Publication

New Research Shows How Enhanced Connectivity Between Health and Social Service Systems Can Reduce Inequality, Inefficiency

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This article explores research showing that cross-sector connections have been slower to develop in rural than urban communities, giving rise to a new and growing form of inequality across the United States.

These findings are part of a collection of 15 new studies released on July 14, 2020, in a special issue of the American Journal of Public Health, all focused on the topic of aligning health and social systems to improve population health.

Case Study

Aligning in Action: Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation

This case study examines how the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation's history of building one of the first Connected Communities of Care in the nation, rooted in its proprietary information exchange platform, gave it — as an intermediary or backbone organization — the necessary experience of aligning diverse stakeholders to then serve as a bridge organization for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Accountable Health Communities Model in Dallas.

Brief

Finding Innovation and Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sector Alignment and the Response to COVID-19

This brief highlights how successfully addressing the complex challenges that affect community health — such as COVID-19 and its economic impacts — requires health care, public health, and social services to work together in new ways.

Case Study

Aligning in Action: Rocky Mountain Health Plans

This case study highlights Rocky Mountain Health Plans (RMHP), a unique example where a payer is facilitating regional efforts to address social determinants of health. RMHP serves as a bridge organization within the Accountable Health Communities Model, coordinating efforts in a largely rural area.