Creating a state certification program for community health workers

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act is rapidly expanding opportunities for use of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in multiple health care and public health settings. Public and private sector payers and provider systems, for instance, are exploring new roles for CHWs in innovative primary care models and community-based prevention and treatment of chronic disease. In Massachusetts, state health care reform prompted adoption of a law requiring the state public health department to create a certification program for CHWs. The new board of certification was established in July, 2012 and has involved CHWs in the process of developing regulations in a nationally unprecedented manner. In this session, a combination of CHW and state health department presenters will explain the rationale and utility for a state CHW certification program, describe the process Massachusetts is using to develop regulations, and present specific information about the emerging program. The session will describe ten core competencies that Massachusetts is using as the basis for certifying individual CHWs and for certifying CHW training programs. The core competencies are based upon the 1998 National Community Health Advisers study and other state models but include innovations that will hopefully be of value to the national CHW workforce development movement.