Somos Community Care, a medical group, will head the Bronx's social care network. The Staten Island Performing Provider System, an established network of healthcare institutions, will lead another that will cover Staten Island. A third, organized by the charity Public Health Solutions, will include Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.

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Anthony Fortenberry is the chief population health officer of Callen-Lorde, a community health organization that serves LGBTQ+ patients. He stated that social care networks will emphasize tracking what happens to patients once they are sent to social services.

Anthony Fortenberry On His Protocol

According to Fortenberry, to ensure that we're regularly closing the loop, we monitor doctor recommendations for X-rays and follow up on them. If you direct a patient to a food pantry, for instance, many organizations do not follow suit.

Participants in the pilot project express optimism about its effectiveness. Still, they also note that to ensure that smaller community-based organizations may participate, the state must monitor how the organizations in charge of the social care networks allocate funding.

The Brooklyn Perinatal Network

Ngozi Moses is the executive director of the Brooklyn Perinatal Network, a group dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes. Due to a lack of funding, she and her group could not participate in the prior Medicaid waiver project.

According to her, groups like hers cannot afford to build up independently and hence require an initial investment to engage in these kinds of operations.

According to Moses, if the state does not exercise caution after three years, community-based organizations may find themselves back where they were, if not worse.