Across the country, more and more states, health plans, and provider organizations are focusing on improving care management for individuals with complex medical, behavioral, and social needs. Like any new model of care, there are questions around direction, priorities, and shared language, including: “What are the core tenets of complex care?,” “What should top priorities be for advancing complex care?,” and “How can we get everyone who is working on this problem on the same page?”

To answer these questions, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) partnered with the National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs (National Center) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) under the Blueprint for Complex Care. The initiative, made possible through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, and The SCAN Foundation, worked to gather input from health care stakeholders across the country — including consumers, providers, administrators, and executives, among others — to propose a strategic direction for the emerging field. By gathering feedback from a diverse set of stakeholders, this collaborative effort outlined goals, needs, and priorities of the complex care movement, as well as a roadmap for the future of innovation, policy, research, and education.

The Blueprint for Complex Care launched with a beehive activity at the National Center’s Putting Care at the Center conference in November 2017. The final “blueprint” document was introduced at the 2018 Putting Care at the Center conference and shared broadly with consumers, providers, policymakers, and researchers.