Community Health Workers (Chws)

Community health workers (CHWs), are frontline workers and members of the communities in which they serve. CHWs serve as bridges between their ethnic, cultural, or geographic communities and health care providers. As such, they have become a “linchpin” for connecting communities to health systems, particularly in minority, rural, and other underserved communities. CHWs reduce health care costs by decreasing unnecessary or avoidable emergency department utilization or hospital services, increasing preventive health screening for early detection, and health education. CHWs provide a return of about $3.00 for each dollar invested or a savings of about $2,000 per patient per year. In 2017, the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force recommended interventions engaging community health workers for diabetes prevention based on sufficient evidence of effectiveness in improving glycemic control and weight-related

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has funded state health departments to increase the use of health-care extenders in the community in support of self-management of high blood pressure (HTN) and diabetes. In addition, 17 grantees from states and large cities were charged with increasing the engagement of non-physician members, such as CHWs to promote linkages between health systems and community resources for adults with high blood pressure.
In 2017, data analysis from the annual progress reports (APRs) from all funded grantees indicated that they were working in several areas to increase the use of CHWS in support of HTN and diabetes. These key areas are as follows: a) Training, apprenticeships, and recognition of CHWs; b) Policy and systems changes to allow CHWs to not only be embedded in teams, but to be reimbursed for their services; c) Heath education and health promotion to expand program reach; d) Sustainability and reimbursement of CHWs using waivers, Medicaid dollars or other private disease specific grant