What We're Reading

Health Policy Journal Club, December 2021

Financing Thriving and the Collaborative Community Response 

The health policy journal club is an interdisciplinary, inter-professional group convened monthly by the Farley Health Policy Center to discuss timely topics in health policy. A curated selection of high-yield articles provides the basis for discussion. Past topics have included income inequality and health, professionalism in medicine, patients as consumers, and adjusting payment for measures of social risk. This page presents the reading list from the most recent journal club.

Readings

Financing thriving/wellness 

1. Nichols LM, Taylor LA. Social determinants as public goods: a new approach to financing key investments in healthy communities. Health Affairs. 2018;37(8).
2. Chapel J. Economic Evaluation: Alternatives to ROI to Show Societal Benefits. CDC Coffee Break presentation. 2016. 

Accountable Health Communities 

1. Accountable Health Communities Model Evaluation: First Evaluation Report. December 2020. RTI International. Executive summary (pages ES1 - ES9). 
2. Hughes DL, Mann C. Financing the infrastructure of accountable communities for health is key to long-term sustainability. Health Affairs.2020;39(4):670-678. 

Collaborative Community Response 

1. Financing Vitality Instead of Sick Care
2. Engaging Members in Success Plans

Summary 

There is growing recognition that unmet social needs have significant negative impacts on health and drive increased costs. Financing systems to broaden their focus from treating the sick to support thriving through also addressing social needs encounters several challenges:

• Delayed return on investment (and overemphasis on return on investment rather than other methods to show societal benefits),
• Siloed funding streams,
• The “free rider” issue of some parties reaping benefits without investing in the solution, and
• The “wrong pocket” problem that investments from one sector are not reimbursed by benefits that accrue to another.

Models to try to shift the health care system to more holistically address social needs and support thriving have been developed, including Accountable Communities for Health (ACH). ACHs have different specifics but share common features and a common need for financial support for an infrastructure that supports collaboration.

Team members from the Farley Health Policy Center along with others at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the wider community have been working on another approach to financing thriving, referred to as Collaborative Community Response.