In the past several months, NMSDOH Collaborative Community Engagement Workgroup members have made approximately 12 community-based presentations to raise awareness of major changes that will take place in New Mexico’s health system. The state is undertaking a major healthcare and social service system change, driven by Medicaid, meant to better support people (serving Medicaid members first) who have both medical and social needs, such as food or housing insecurity. The change will be development of a “closed-loop healthcare and social services referral system” (CLRS). It will formally link healthcare (medical services) and community agencies providing health-related social needs (HRSNs) services or assistance like housing, food, transport, utilities and the like, through an IT platform that collects client/patient data, makes referrals for services, tracks services provided, and clients/patients helped, and reports back this information to determine if health outcomes improve. The aim is to improve overall quality of care, health equity, health outcomes, and lower healthcare costs through value-based payment. The community presentations have been well-received, with questions and suggestions about the details of a closed-loop referral system from participants, and requests for the NMSDOH-Collaborative to keep communities informed on progress.  

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