PA Department of Health and Human Services to Award More Than One Million Dollars

The PA Department of Health and Human Services (PA DHS) will award more than one (1) Million dollars in onboarding grants to forty-five (45) organizations, located throughout the Commonwealth, for connecting their internal systems directly to PA Navigate. PA Navigate, powered by findhelp, is the statewide community information network designed to address health and social care needs for Pennsylvanians by connecting them to community services.

PA Navigate serves several important purposes:

· Build a statewide platform connecting patients to social services

· Making social determinants of health/health related social needs data as shareable as clinical data

· Understanding citizens’ needs and capacity to meet them

· Help make social care sustainable in PA

The PA DHS grant program, which concluded September 30, 2025, was made available through Pennsylvania health information exchange organizations to work with inpatient hospitals/facilities, outpatient practices/providers, payers/health plans, community-based organizations, and social service agencies to technically integrate their existing systems-of-record to PA Navigate.

Through PA Navigate, healthcare providers and health plans are connected with community-based, socio-economic support service agencies, to create a closed-loop referral system – connecting patients with needed services and keeping their care teams in the loop.

This partnership shows how care teams can work together to improve care coordination and document outcomes that may be associated with community-based services. Better care coordination and collaboration between health and community teams can improve health, enhance quality of life, and reduce avoidable healthcare utilization and spending.

Integrations between PA Navigate and systems-of-record can be as simple as adding a link within the system-of-record or as complex as embedding PA Navigate within the Electronic Health Record. Healthcare providers or payers interested in joining the PA Navigate coalition should contact their regional health information exchange to find out more about the benefits and process of joining. Non-profit or community-based social service agencies interested in making sure their programs are listed on PA Navigate, or who would like assistance claiming your listings and receiving referrals through PA Navigate should contact CAAP to learn more.