A Wellness Trust is a funding pool raised to support prevention and wellness interventions that improve population health outcomes. Sources of funding can include public and/or private money. The Massachusetts Prevention and Wellness Trust was established by the Massachusetts legislature in 2012 and became the first state effort to use a wellness trust as a vehicle to make a large commitment to population-based health promotion efforts.
Growing interest in wellness trust coincides with the current transformation of the health care system that moves care away from traditional fee-for-service payments to value-based, global payment for the care of population of patients. These new delivery and payment reform efforts are better aligned with community-based prevention and wellness efforts. Wellness trusts can supplement limited public resources for prevention and allow for innovative prevention efforts that target upstream drivers of health and wellness, including those in the built community.
This Jargon Buster was contributed by the Georgia Health Policy Center.
