Using Social Impact Financing to Improve Asthma Outcomes

The Childhood Asthma Leadership Coalition hosted a webinar on September 29, 2014 to discuss efforts underway to use a social impact bond (SIB) financing model to address the range of complex issues that children with asthma face to get their chronic condition under control. SIBs are a potentially powerful tool for improving services for medically underserved children with asthma.

This webinar explored three emerging social financing models that tackle chronic asthma, working to demonstrate the dual social and financial benefits of up-front investment in asthma management and prevention. The following presenters discussed SIB models underway in Fresno, CA, Alameda County, CA and Baltimore, MD:

  • Tony Iton, MD, JD, MPH: Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities, The California Endowment
  • Anne Kelsey Lamb, MPH: Director, Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP)
  • Ruth Ann Norton: President & CEO, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative
  • Alice Yu: Associate, Third Sector Capital Partners
  • Maria Hernandez, PhD: President, Impact4Health; Special Advisor on Social Impact Investing, Health Research for Action, UC Berkeley School of Public Health

In its most basic form, private investors participating in a SIB model pay the upfront costs for providing social services - from services related to criminal justice, to education, to health - and government agencies repay investors with a return on their investment if the program achieves agreed-upon outcomes (such as decreased healthcare expenditures).  

SIB models focused on asthma are designed to demonstrate that by educating patients and taking action against asthma triggers at home, insurers can achieve significant savings on emergency room visits, hospitalizations and other healthcare costs.

Download the webinar slides. 

Play the webinar recording.