In its Transforming Care series, the Commonwealth Fund is looking at innovations happening across the nation’s healthcare delivery system to ensure the health and wellbeing of our sickest and most vulnerable populations. In “Reimagining Rural Health Care” The Commonwealth Fund highlights all of the challenges rural residents face when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle and receiving the care they need, as well as the creative programs and provider approaches being used to address these obstacles.
Many of the same issues facing those in rural areas can be compared to those in lower-income areas (both rural and urban), including uninsured rates, poverty rates, and the use of unhealthy behaviors. As such, Delaware is working to change the way healthcare is delivered to both rural and urban residents across the state through the Delaware Center for Health Innovation (DCHI). DCHI is driving health care transformation, including improvement of both consumer and provider experiences and shifting the payment model towards value-based services.
As mentioned in the Commonwealth Fund article, innovative programs and providers are upending the way healthcare is delivered in rural areas, including moving towards value-based payment models, addressing the social determinants of health, and emphasizing community health. DCHI is also employing many of these approaches with its goal on moving 90 percent of providers and 80 percent of Delawareans to a value-based payment model by 2019, and its focus on healthy communities and primary care coordination through the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative and Clinical Committee. For more information on DCHI and how it's transforming healthcare across Delaware, please opt-in for communcations!
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