Across the nation, health care payers, providers, and policymakers are seeking ways to engage community members to better understand barriers to good health and invest in programs that better meet community needs. Medicaid enrollees and people enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid disproportionately experience high rates of complex health and social needs. Engaging with this population can positively impact health outcomes.

While there is robust evidence supporting the benefits of patient engagement in improving self-management for people with complex needs, there is limited evidence on engaging patients and community members in organizational or policy decision-making and co-design. Driven by growing recognition that involving community members in this way can improve population health, many health care stakeholders are seeking to enhance their community engagement processes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Access rule, published in April 2024, aims to improve health outcomes for beneficiaries by expanding opportunities for people with lived experience to inform Medicaid program design and policy decision-making.

Health care stakeholders, including policymakers, health plans, and providers, can use this Evidence-to-Action Collection to to understand emerging evidence and best practices for implementing community engagement interventions to better meet community needs and improve health outcomes.

Explore the Collection to learn about:

Evidence

Case Examples

Implementation Tools