Community-based providers such as direct-care workers, family caregivers and behavioral health workers (among others) have customarily taken a backseat to other health care providers in terms of funding, support, visibility and inclusion in care teams.

The traditional acute care centered model of health care has laid the groundwork for a system in which volume-based care is king. However, care delivery innovations have been proliferating throughout the health care system for years now, and value-based care is seeing slow but steady adoption across South Carolina. The recommendations developed by the Workforce for Health Taskforce aim to follow the trend of patient-centered value-based care upstream, against tradition and traditional reimbursement, to the place where public health, population health, human services and traditional care delivery coalesce.

Managing the health needs of a community can be a difficult balancing act that requires near-perfect optimization of personnel and resource deployment. Today, finding that balance presents a moving target for providers. The following Workforce for Health Taskforce recommendations are designed to prepare and support health and human service providers as they work to balance the demands of the changing health care landscape in South Carolina.