Boswell

Boswell bridges gaps in care for Medicaid members by serving as the trusted technology
and wraparound service partner for food pantries, social service organizations, and Medicaid health organizations. By pairing software and data insights, with community health worker services, Boswell drives engagement, better health outcomes, and lowers costs of care.
Over 100 social service organizations are in Boswell’s network, reaching more than 430,000 Medicaid members and paving pathways for engagement in preventive care.

The Problem
Social factors such as housing stability and food security can affect 80% of a person’s health outcomes. For the 61 million Medicaid members struggling with at least one of these social needs, seeking preventive healthcare can seem like an afterthought in their challenging lives — even though they are 2.2 times more likely to have chronic illnesses and complex medical needs. Health providers and insurance plans recognize the importance of assisting their members with these social challenges, opting to screen for social needs when members show up in a clinic. However, these well-intentioned efforts are often ineffective, especially for the 32 million unengaged Medicaid members who never set foot in a clinic. In fact, instead of going to their health plan or doctor for help with social needs, up to 80% of these Medicaid members rely on community-based organizations and turn to one community touchpoint with regularity: food pantries.
Missed opportunities for preventive care engagement are costly to not only Medicaid members but also their health plans. While members suffer adverse health outcomes, health plans serving vulnerable populations are penalized due to poor quality measures (e.g. cancer screening rate), costly hospitalizations from unmanaged chronic conditions, and higher member churn. Members want help and their health plans want to help, but they cannot find each other. Food pantries can play a key connector role, but they are often understaffed and overworked, without significant capacity to help clients find the other services they need.

The Solution
Boswell helps find and engage hard-to-reach and rising-risk Medicaid members in a community setting they trust, when they need it the most. Starting with the 100,000 food pantries across the U.S., Boswell’s tech-enabled service platform transforms social service organizations into hubs where Medicaid members engage with healthcare. Whether providing a software system to save food pantry staff time or embedding a team of Boswell community health advocates to further support members, Boswell is here to help.

Boswell works with smaller food pantries to deliver Medicaid-eligible community health worker services directly through the Boswell Advocates team. For larger food pantries, Boswell enables reimbursement and revenue generation via its software platform for the Medicaid-eligible services the pantry teams already perform. Additionally, Boswell collaborates with Medicaid healthcare organizations to derive and share population-level insights on social needs while driving engagement in preventative care. Currently providing Medicaid-eligible services in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Boswell plans to expand into multiple states in the coming year.