Center of Excellence to Align Health and Social Care: Enhancing Community-Based Aging and Disability Organizations to Improve Access to Long-Term Services and Supports

The Administration for Community Living will fund approximately 10 grantees for a two-year project period to support the development and enhancement of Community Care Hubs (CCH) which are providing key access functions within a community such as coordination of information and referral, screening, care coordination, care transitions, eligibility and enrollment, and person-centered planning. A growing share of community-based organizations (CBOs) are coordinating or participating in community-based networks in order to create and respond to an increasing demand from health sector entities that seek social care services and supports at volumes, scopes, and geographic areas larger than a single CBO can typically meet. This has given rise to the emergence of the CCH, with a community-based Lead Entity (LE) that resides at the CCH’s core. The intent is to provide funding directly to LEs with an emphasis on areas of the country without existing infrastructure, to build their network maturity and align their service capabilities to contract with health care sector entities (e.g., accountable care organizations, health plans, managed care organizations, hospitals, health systems, and more). Participants will complete an Organizational Capacity Assessment (optional for those that have already done so) to identify capacity to coordinate and streamline contracting, quality assurance, IT system and data integration, and workforce development, as well as access to a menu of social service options so that individuals can obtain the social care they need through a single point of entry. This competitive NOFO will also identify up to 5 regional Centers for Excellence to help provide technical assistance, mentoring and facilitate partnerships across health payers and LEs.