NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) today announced a groundbreaking fund to help community providers of health and human services play their crucial role in achieving better health outcomes.

The AIM Healthy fund launches with $13 million, supported by Blue Shield of California Foundation, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, Dignity Health, and The Kresge Foundation.

AIM Healthy loans and lines of credit can, for example, help a recuperative-care nonprofit to add beds that provide a bridge between the hospital and permanent housing – combatting homelessness as well as hospital and jail readmissions, or a food-as-medicine nonprofit to partner with a health plan to lower costs and improve outcomes for patients with chronic diseases.

With the country’s increasing focus on healthcare quality and cost has come a wider recognition of the role that social determinants of health – such as housing, food security, education, employment – play in the well-being of people and communities. Prioritization of the “Triple Aim” (higher-quality care, with better health outcomes, at a lower cost) is driving changes at both systems and organizational levels, including shifts to value-based payment models, and partnerships between community-based organizations (CBOs) and hospital systems, particularly in low-income communities.

Photo courtesy of reynermedia.