Applying the ROI Calculator for Partnerships to Address Social Determinants of Health

Health care organizations increasingly partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) to address patients’ health-related social needs such as nutrition, housing, and transportation. While these cross-sector partnerships can help integrate services for people with complex needs, health care and social service organizations often struggle to establish partnerships and contracts given their different structures and financial resources.
The ROI Calculator for Partnerships to Address Social Determinants of Health (ROI Calculator) was designed to assist CBOs and their health care partners to explore, structure, and plan financial arrangements to fund social services for people with complex needs. Health systems, payers, medical providers, social service providers, and CBOs can use the ROI Calculator to determine the overall return on investment (ROI) from integrating social services with medical care. The easy-to-use resource compares how the financial returns and risks could be divided between the partners under different payment models.
This Better Care Playbook webinar described how health care organizations and CBOs can apply the ROI Calculator to their work. It featured a case example on how a Washington State CBO used this tool to quantify the value of their services when developing a partnership with a Medicare Advantage plan.