The Administration for Community Living (ACL) announces Phase 1 winners of the Social Care Referrals Challenge competition. Launched in March of 2020, the challenge will award prizes for developing and optimizing interoperable and scalable technology solutions that foster connections between community-based organizations and health care systems in support of holistic health and social care for older adults and people with disabilities.
The comprehensive proposals demonstrated multi-stakeholder approaches to addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) through alignment of health care and community-based services. ACL’s Social Care Referrals Challenge aims to bridge the gap between health and social care by enhancing scalable approaches for sharing standardized data on social determinants and person-centered plans through the use of open resource directories that seamlessly connect and interoperate across community-based organizations (such as area agencies on aging and centers for independent living) and health care systems.
Forty proposals were scored individually by multiple judges and evaluated by an expert panel. Of these, 12 were selected to advance to the second phase of the competition. Some teams with similar geographies and supporting similar communities developed plans to merge efforts for Phase 2, leading to greater opportunities for streamlining their work to support statewide approaches. Each will be awarded $30,000 to support continued development of their solutions as they compete for a second award of $60,000 and a grand prize of up to $140,000.
The challenge competition is part of a national effort to align health care and social service delivery in order to maximize health and quality of life outcomes. Services delivered in the home and in the community that prevent falls, address food insecurity and transportation issues, manage chronic disease, support employment and economic independence, reduce social isolation, and address other non-medical risk factors have been shown to improve health outcomes and reduce the cost of care. These teams have recognized the need for managing referrals for these types of social services, avoiding duplicative workflows in an already strained system, and prioritizing opportunities to provide better support and care for the people served by the health care system and social service system, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.
The Phase 1 winning solutions and finalists are as follows.* See the announcement on the website for full project descriptions.
FHIR-FLI: Atrium Health
FHIR Wire: AMA Health Information Solutions
Service Net: Beneficent Technology, Inc., DBA Benetech
South Carolina Referral System: SC Thrive
United Way for Southeastern Michigan
United Way of Salt Lake
Missouri Aging Services Data Collaborative –
The following three teams below have agreed to partner and merge as one team for Phase 2 of the competition. This new team brings a collective vision for stronger aging services data connectivity across the State of Missouri through data mapping, resource data alignment, and referral platform integration.
- Data Standards for MO AAAs: University of Missouri - St. Louis
- MOKAN Bi-State Networks: Guardian Group, LLC
- St. Louis Regional Coalition: Aging Ahead
New York SDOH Referral Collaborative –
The three teams below have agreed to partner and merge as one team for Phase 2 of the competition. This team will focus on statewide consensus building and standards based on specific use cases and workflows with a technical framework that is interoperable, responsive, and scalable.
- Healthy Together: Alliance for Better Health
- Northwell Health
- SHIN-NY 2-1-1 New York: New York eHealth Collaborative
Five teams received special recognition for being top contenders in the competition. Critical partnerships were forged by these teams and are recognized as successful interventions for this work. View the announcement for more details about the Honorable Mentions.
ACL thanks the expert panel of 19 judges that participated in the review process and provided valuable insight to inform our final decision of winners! More information about the Social Care Referrals Challenge, including deadlines and evaluation criteria, can be found at acl.gov/socialcarereferrals.
* Project descriptions were extracted from materials submitted for the competition. ACL does not endorse the organizations or solutions.