People with complex needs face many challenges, such as chronic health conditions, behavioral health issues, trauma history, food insecurity, and homelessness. When these individuals require medical services, they often encounter a health care system that is poorly coordinated and inefficient. Implementation of promising care models for this population is critical to improving outcomes, reducing avoidable health care costs, and building further evidence for the most effective approaches.

To this end, seven leading health care foundations — Arnold Ventures, The Commonwealth Fund, The John A. Hartford Foundation, Milbank Memorial Fund, Peterson Center on Healthcare, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The SCAN Foundation — sought to accelerate health system transformation by helping health care organizations adopt evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes and lower overall costs of care for people with complex needs. The Better Care Playbook (the Playbook), led by the Center for Health Care Strategies, represented one piece of this effort. This online resource center provided health care stakeholders — including health system leaders, payers, and policymakers — with the best available knowledge about promising approaches to improve care for people with complex needs. It offered a highly curated set of resources, including peer-reviewed journal articles, case studies, step-by-step guides, and practical tips.

Now evolved into the Evidence-to-Action Hub, launched in September 2025, the resource continues to support evidence-based care for people with complex health and social needs, while refining its focus to highlight proven strategies for improving care across populations served by Medicaid.