Implementation of NCCARE360, a Digital Statewide Closed-Loop Referral Platform to Improve Health and Social Care Coordination: Evidence from the North Carolina COVID-19 Support Services Program

Efforts to improve population health by being responsive to patients’ social and economic conditions will benefit from care models and technologies that assess and address unmet social needs. In 2019, NCCARE360 launched in North Carolina as the first state­wide digital care coordination network to “close the loop” on referrals between community-based organizations (CBOs), health service providers, and social service agencies. The platform creates a shared network for sending and receiving electronic referrals and track client outcomes. As a case study, we compare NCCARE360 resolution rates for community resource referrals originating from a large integrated health system primarily in Durham County from September 1, 2020, through February 28, 2021. In the first year, COVID-19 Support Ser­vices Program (COVID-SSP) funding was available to reimburse associated CBOs for providing food assistance and case management services. We compared this with the same period the following year after funds had been exhausted. We present frontline implementation experiences and highlight opportunities, challenges, and recommendations for NCCARE360 implementation. Multi-level considerations for individual end users, organizations adopting the platform, and policymakers are presented. Addi­tionally, we find that when COVID-SSP funding was available, more referrals were placed (3,220 cases) and referrals were more likely to be resolved (88% resolution rate) when compared to the same time frame when funds were no longer available (860 cases; 30% resolution rate). These results underscore the importance of reimbursement mechanisms and funding. The examination of referral rates is observational and may not generalize to other contexts. The shift to value-based care is an opportunity to embrace structural solutions to health and social care fragmentation. There is also an opportunity to realize the potential of NCCARE360 and efforts like it to contain costs and improve health outcomes and equity.