We believe everyone should be able to get the effective, affordable care they need to maintain and improve their health. Focusing on people who have low incomes and those who are medically underserved, the Improving Care Delivery program centers two priorities: strengthening primary care and bolstering rural health.
Strengthening Primary Care
Primary health care is the foundation of a well-functioning health system. But in the United States, people face dwindling access to high-quality primary care, while providers struggle with increasing administrative burdens, inadequate pay, and burnout.
The Commonwealth Fund seeks to strengthen primary health care in three ways: 1) by promoting reforms to how providers are paid; 2) by exploring ways to expand the primary care workforce; and 3) in collaboration with our Achieving Equitable Outcomes program, by identifying tech-enabled, team-based care models that enable greater access to quality primary care.
2026 Program Funding Priorities
- Promoting the adoption of provider payment reform and increased investment in primary care.
- Exploring policy options for growing and retaining the primary care workforce and identifying additional types of health professionals who can help meet the nation’s primary care needs.
- Generating evidence for and catalyzing take-up of innovative, evidence-based models of primary care.
Bolstering Rural Health
One in five people in the U.S. live in rural communities, which face unique challenges in ensuring their residents have health care that’s accessible, affordable, and high-quality. The Commonwealth Fund is exploring stable, reliable methods for paying and financing rural health systems and looking beyond licensed providers to strengthen the rural health care workforce. We also seek to spread technologies that can help address challenges facing rural families.
2026 Program Funding Priorities
- Identifying, evaluating, and scaling new models of payment and financing for essential health care services in rural areas.
- Building rural health care workforce capacity, with a focus on the creative deployment of community health workers.
- Generating evidence about innovations, including new technologies, that could improve access to specialty and behavioral health services in rural areas.
