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Research shows that meeting basic needs determines up to 80 percent of a person’s health. Most healthcare spending focuses on the other 20 percent—on treating disease rather than preventing it. Impact Health is working to flip that script by addressing critical social needs within medical care.
Our robust infrastructure allows healthcare providers to connect patients to life-changing community resources. These connections ensure that patients have access to nutritious food, stable housing, reliable transportation, and healthy relationships – the building blocks for better health. This whole-person approach extends beyond the exam room to break generational cycles of poverty and disease.
Impact Health is also strengthening Western North Carolina’s safety net by investing in the local nonprofits at the heart of our work. We provide the capacity-building funding, administrative support, and training our network partners need to thrive. This support leads to greater sustainability for nonprofits that bridge critical gaps for North Carolinians.
Impact Health got its start as a network lead for North Carolina’s groundbreaking Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP). Our network supports pilot participants living in Western North Carolina, one of the first three pilot regions. HOP connects eligible NC Medicaid members with evidence-based nonmedical services to support their health-related needs.
As participants access these life-changing services, their health improves. Early findings show North Carolina saves an average of $1,000 in yearly medical costs for each participant. Those who receive pilot services have fewer costly emergency department and hospital visits.
Impact Health does not provide direct services. Our role is to ensure everyone eligible for healthy opportunities can access them. We work with more than 60 trusted community-based organizations to deliver high-quality, culturally appropriate services. Impact Health serves as a bridge between participants, service providers, and private health plans. We support essential program functions, including eligibility screening, service referrals, and Medicaid billing.
Here are a few of the ways we are positively impacting health in our region:
We’re working closely with network partners to transform how we care for our communities. Impact Health brings community-based organizations together to share skills, resources, and best practices.
We are committed to creating a culture of belonging where all community members can thrive. This starts with weaving equity, diversity, and inclusion into all aspects of our organization. It extends to our community partnerships and the way we serve our community.
We facilitate whole-person care through Impact Primary Care Network. Our clinically integrated network provides quality care management and the coordinated delivery of medical and social care services.
We use data to advance health equity in WNC. Impact Health tracks network performance to ensure program quality, access, and participant satisfaction. We’re also building scalable solutions to integrate social and clinical care in North Carolina and beyond.
We invest in solutions to bolster our region’s safety net. Impact Health offers training, technical support, and funding to ensure our network’s sustainability.
In 2018, an opportunity arose for Dogwood Health Trust to bring an innovative model for improving health to Western North Carolina through participation in North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot program.
NC HOP is one of the nation’s most ambitious and comprehensive programs to address health-related social needs through Medicaid funding. The pilot’s goals closely align with Dogwood’s purpose of dramatically improving the health and wellbeing of all people in Western North Carolina. After a competitive statewide selection process, the NC Department of Health and Human Services selected Dogwood to oversee pilot implementation in WNC.
HOP’s success depends on a diverse network of trusted human service organizations working collaboratively to deliver pilot services when and where they are needed most. Because no such network existed in the region, Dogwood established Impact Health.
In December 2019, Impact Health became an independent 501(c)3. Shortly thereafter, it began recruiting local nonprofit organizations to join the WNC pilot network. Today that network is more than 60 organizations strong, and an array of pilot services are available across all 18 WNC counties.
In 2024, responding to a new regional need, Impact Health founded Impact Primary Care Network. IPCN is a nonprofit provider-led network that provides care management services to primary care practices serving NC Medicaid and Medicare members. IPCN is also driving the integration of social and clinical care through participation in HOP, Medicare Making Care Primary, and other innovative social health programs.
Though wholly independent, Impact Health and Dogwood continue to partner on shared initiatives to ensure all WNC community members can thrive with no exceptions.
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Search our list of Human Service Organizations (HSOs) who provide housing, transportation, food or interpersonal safety services.
To reach Impact Health’s office, contact us at
833-614-9400 or [email protected].
For media inquiries, please contact Jennifer Caldwell at
[email protected].
Stay up to date with the latest news and information from Impact Health.