Effectiveness of Community Health Workers in Healthcare Delivery: Evidence from the Field

Evidence suggests that health care in the United States could benefit from including the services of Community Health Workers (CHW), provided through Community Health Houses, in the delivery of care. This research project evaluated the impact of three newly-established Health Houses and the services provided to patients by Community Health Workers at three locations in the Mississippi Delta. The patients were current enrollees in the Medicare administered by United Healthcare. The program began in February 2014 and continued through September 2015. After analyzing data for payments made for each enrollee, emergency room visits and hospital admissions for the years of 2013, 2014, and 2015, we found significant decreases in the cost of health care for enrollees, the frequency of emergency room visits, and hospital admissions during the period 2013-2015. These reductions were especially marked during the years 2014 and 2015, and suggest that health care costs, patient visits to the emergency and hospital admissions could be reduced by introducing CHWs’ services through an integrated Community Health House model of healthcare delivery