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Link Health and Workforce Development
Link Health is a simple idea that solves two problems at once. We meet patients where they already are, in clinics and health centers, and help them enroll in the federal and state benefits they qualify for while they wait. That includes SNAP, WIC, Medicaid and the Medicare Savings Program, LIHEAP, and Lifeline, among others. To date, our partnerships have helped families unlock millions of dollars in concrete support, with more than $5.2 million delivered and over 3,000 patients served across Boston and Houston. The result is food on the table, a phone that stays on, rent paid, medications covered, and a path into care that sticks.
A Workforce Strategy Hidden in Plain Sight
The heart of Link Health is a staffing model that turns pre-health education into hands-on public service that leads to concrete opportunities in the healthcare workforce as Certified Patient Navigator and beyond.
We partner with over a dozen universities in Boston and Houston whose pre-health (pre-med, pre-nursing, PA, PT, OT, MPH etc) students must complete clinical or direct service hours to graduate. For example, Northeastern University public health students need about 10 hours each week. Instead of sending those hours into simulations or shadowing, we embed students in real clinics where they can help real patients with real outcomes.
The Deal: Credit, Pay, Purpose
The deal is straightforward. Students earn academic credit tied to their program requirements, receive training that counts toward their degree, and for our Senior Patient Navigators and our Chief Patient Navigators, are paid a modest stipend for the hours they work. They are not scut workers. They are trained navigators who add capacity to overburdened clinics, and they see the immediate impact of their effort when a patient leaves with SNAP approved, or Lifeline activated, or Medicaid reinstated.
From Student to Certified Patient Navigator
We do not stop at a semester of service. Link Health converts students into Certified Patient Navigators after structured training and supervised practice. Navigators are auxiliary clinical personnel who can complete defined tasks inside the electronic medical record and in clinic operations. Their role is recognized by CMS and many state programs in ways that enable billing for defined services through existing codes. The point is not to squeeze dollars out of paperwork. The point is to make this model sustainable so clinics can keep the positions, grow them, and repay the time clinicians win back.
What Navigators Actually Do
Certified Patient Navigators screen for social needs, complete benefit applications, gather documentation, track renewals, log outcomes in the EMR, and coordinate with clinical staff so benefits and care plans reinforce one another. They do the phone calls. They scan the pay stubs. They chase the missing letter. They keep the re-enrollment date from slipping. They free nurses, physicians, and social workers to do the work only they can do.
Scale and Evidence
This is not a boutique internship. In the current cohort, more than 70 students a year are converted into Patient Navigator or Senior Patient Navigator roles and are delivering direct service in clinics. The experience is academically productive even beyond the clinical component. Our students have presented at more than 25 scientific conferences, including a recent presentation in Rome, Italy, and contributed to over 10 peer-reviewed papers and public articles that document outcomes, operations, and lessons for spread.
Pathways That Do Not End at Graduation
Most of our navigators are headed toward medicine, nursing, public health, PA, or PT programs, and this experience gives them what admissions committees say they want most, which is meaningful patient contact and responsibility. Others take a different path. Because the credential and experience are real, some graduates can take a different, more direct route, and be hired as Certified Patient Navigators or as community health workers. The program is a bridge into a career, not a one-off volunteer line.
A Neighborhood Pipeline in Dorchester
Workforce development should start early and be local. In Dorchester, a majority-minority community in Boston, we are launching a neighborhood pilot with Boys & Girls Clubs to introduce young people to the Certified Patient Navigator pathway. A teenager who never pictured a place in health care can see themselves in a clinic, learn the steps, and take that first paid role in healthcare. That is how you widen a pipeline without lowering a bar.
What Clinics and Health Systems Get
Clinics get capacity they can afford and keep. Navigators absorb tasks that otherwise fall to clinicians and front desk staff. They reduce churn by helping patients keep coverage. They capture revenue through appropriate billing where allowed. Most important, they help patients resolve the everyday barriers that derail care. In a primary care practice, that is the difference between a missed follow up and a controlled A1c.
Why Policymakers Should Care
If you believe in talent pipelines, budget discipline, and practical solutions, you should like this model. It uses existing institutions and rules. It converts mandated student hours into measurable results. It builds a diverse pipeline into health careers. It supports overtaxed clinics without adding unfunded mandates. And it pays for itself when clinics can bill for defined services and retain staff who might otherwise burn out.
A Simple Invitation
There is nothing abstract here. If you run a university program with required clinical hours, we can align them with patient outcomes. If you run a clinic or a health system, we can help you stand up a navigator corps that lightens the load today and grows your workforce for tomorrow. If you write policy or manage a payer, you can clarify billing pathways for navigators and reward clinics that keep patients covered.
We can keep arguing about workforce shortages and social determinants of health, or we can build a service corps that does something about both at the same time. Link Health shows that the workforce we need is already in the classroom. All we have to do is move it into the clinic and let it get to work.
Author: Dr. Alister Martin
