How to pay for it: Financing community health workers in Transitions Clinics

The Transitions Clinic model is an evidence-based program designed to serve people with chronic diseases who have recently been released from incarceration. Operated by health centers located in communities with high rates of incarceration, Transitions Clinic Network (TCN) programs assist people in this vulnerable population with reintegration into their neighborhoods and lives. TCN sites have served thousands of patients in California and other states.

Founded on the idea that people with lived experience are best able to support people returning to their communities, each clinic that adopts the TCN model employs a community health worker (CHW) as a vital member of its clinical team. CHWs meet with all patients one-on-one, connecting them with health and social services through outreach, assessment, education, counseling, follow-up, and advocacy. They act as liaisons that help ensure that clients receive culturally relevant health services, and they build a unique trust with them that sees their clients using emergency departments and being hospitalized less, and using primary care more.

This paper, offers clinics a menu of financing options that they can use to fund a CHW for their own Transitions Clinic program.