A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Outreach Work Done by Community Health Workers Targeting At-Risk Pregnant Women in Muskegon County

The concern for the rising costs in healthcare has been escalating in the last few years and consequently healthcare organizations have taken an approach to reduce the costs. In April 2011, The Muskegon Community Health Project (MCHP) developed the Muskegon Area Pregnancy Pathways Pilot Project (funded by the March of Dimes). It was found that one of the best ways to reduce healthcare costs associated with low birth weight infants was to engage at risk women through the use of community health workers. The Muskegon Area Pregnancy Pathways Project was developed to target at-risk women who were susceptible to delivering low birth-weight babies. As a result, this study aimed to give a socio-economic assessment of whether or not the program, with a Community Health Worker (CHW) led intervention, resulted in an overall gain or loss to the community. For this study, a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been done to measure the impact created by the program and by the CHWs. There will be 3 cost components and 2 benefits that can be quantified. The basis of the CBA will help organizations in their decision-making process to finance a similar program