Common Health Compendium

California's Population Health Management program offers a well-developed model for integrating Medicaid managed care with state and local public health entities to support community-based prevention efforts, and align with broader population health goals.

Serious mental illness (SMI) has moved to the top of the agenda for healthcare leaders, policymakers, and public health officials alike. SMI affects approximately 1 in 20 adults in the U.S. annually, and there is renewed urgency and interest in identifying and scaling solutions that work to help address the needs of people with SMI. For over 75 years, Fountain House has been a leader in treating those with serious mental illness. The organization pioneered the clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation long before it became policy consensus, building the evidence base, developing a global network, and is now positioned as one of the most credible and scalable answers to meeting the complex health and social needs for those with SMI. Through its community-based approach – centered on membership, connection, and meaningful participation – it has established a globally recognized model for recovery and continues to advance frameworks that guide more effective, person-centered systems of care. At a time when leaders are searching for approaches that both transform lives and control costs, Fountain House offers a model. For example, the Fountain House Measures That Matter framework reflects a shift away from traditional clinical and utilization metrics toward outcomes that people with lived experience identify as most meaningful to recovery. These include quality of life, social connection, trust, and progress toward personal goals – domains that better capture the realities of living with and managing SMI. By elevating these priorities, the framework supports a move toward value-based, whole-person care that emphasizes long-term well-being over service volume. It offers a practical roadmap for health systems and payers to align measurement and accountability with what truly drives recovery, while remaining grounded in dignity, agency, and lived experience. According to Fountain House's Beyond Treatment report, clubhouse participation can save more than $11,000 per person, which translates to a national savings of nearly $700 million annually across the known 60,000 members served. The potential is even greater at scale: if clubhouses were appropriately resourced and expanded to serve just 5% of the 15.4 million adults in the U.S. living with SMI, the net societal savings would exceed $8.5 billion. These figures account not only for healthcare savings, but also for potential lost wages and productivity, disability benefits, repeated emergency room visits, and criminal justice impacts.

Created in 2023, Health First Indiana (HFI) aims to tackle Indiana’s poor health rankings by ensuring access to core public health services at the local level. With the state’s investment, HFI provides local health departments with funding and resources, utilizes partnerships between hospitals and local health departments, and uses county health data to implement evidence-based programs focused on prevention. HFI has identified core public health services, which local health departments and the Indiana Hospital Association have pledged to support. This private-public partnership empowers local health departments to determine where investments are made, with many success stories to date.

The Minnesota Electronic Health Record Consortium is a partnership between Minnesota health systems and public health agencies to study the epidemiology of diseases affecting Minnesotans, including health equity indicators related to COVID-19, substance use disorders, and other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension. The Consortium utilizes this comprehensive data to inform health policy and enact changes that meet the needs of the community.

Parkland Health and Dallas County Health and Human Services rely on shared data to provide social services, optimize clinical activities, target employee recruitment, and invest in communities, among other outcomes.

The Minnesota Department of Public Health joined a collaborative effort to implement and automate electronic case reporting for COVID-19.. The process reduced provider reporting burden and improved accuracy and efficiency of case data compared to other reporting methods, such as phone and fax.

Commissioned in 2003, the Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management Coalition is a statewide federally qualified all hazards comprehensive emergency management healthcare coalition program. Over 186 partners from health care, emergency management, and public health coordinate, with clearly outlined responsibilities for each organization.

Community health workers bridge the gap between communities and health care and public health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City’s public hospital system and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene created the Public Health Corps to harness the power of community health workers, also known as promotoras in Spanish-speaking communities. Community health workers are vital to a successful and equitable response during emergent disease outbreaks, as well as for chronic disease management.

Clear responses to trending narratives are vital both during public health emergencies and in the day-to-day work of public health professionals and health care providers. Through the Public Good Projects’s work in infodemiology—the study of the spread of information with the goal of improving public health—health care institutions and public health departments across the country have access to media monitoring tools and strategic insights that can inform decision-making around timely health communications. PGP will also encourage and support members to leverage trusted voices to deliver clear, consistent messages to the public.

The California Collaborative for Public Health Research (CPR3), which includes the University of California-California Department of Public Health Modeling and Advanced Analytics Consortium, serves as a blueprint for how state-wide academic and community public health partnerships can bridge research to policy to inform public health interventions, investments and decision-making.

Blue Shield of California supported the state’s efforts to provide equitable vaccine access. The resulting COVID-19 vaccine distribution network enabled the state to rapidly expand vaccine access by increasing public health agencies’ visibility into vaccine supply and distribution.

Michigan’s Public Health Advisory Council advises the governor and state health commissioner on health issues, including strategies to address them. Using a “One Health” approach, the council issued a public health call to action to bring partners in health care and public health together.