How Evidence Can Guide Prevention Investments
10/12/2026
By Alice Hm Chen, MD, MPH, Chief Health Officer, Centene Corporation
At Centene, we see every day how the right preventive interventions can improve health outcomes. Helping people stay healthier, identifying risks earlier and intervening before a condition worsens can reduce avoidable illness and help people access the care and support they need before health challenges become more serious.
As a leading provider of government-sponsored healthcare, Centene serves nearly 26 million members through Medicaid, Medicare and Marketplace plans. Many of the people we serve face complex health challenges, barriers to care and circumstances that can make it harder to achieve good health. We focus on prevention strategies that engage people across different populations and geographies. We also have the responsibility to be stewards of taxpayer-funded healthcare dollars, ensuring healthcare resources are directed toward interventions that demonstrate meaningful benefit for members and communities. Together, that experience and responsibility shape how we think about prevention and why we believe evidence must play a central role in prevention investments.
Today, healthcare organizations are evaluating a growing number of prevention-focused innovations. New technologies, screening approaches, predictive tools and digital health platforms are generating significant interest, but not all of these are supported by the same level of evidence. Some may ultimately change how care is delivered, while others may prove less effective when applied across broader populations.
Healthcare organizations must determine which prevention strategies are most likely to improve outcomes so we can invest healthcare resources where they can have the greatest impact. In a recent Health Affairs Forefront article, my co-authors and I explore these challenges and introduce the Evidence-Based Prevention Continuum, a framework designed to help healthcare leaders make more informed prevention investment decisions.
Not All Prevention Interventions Are Created Equal
Whole-body MRI screening for people without symptoms, blood tests intended to predict pregnancy complications and wearable devices designed to support health and wellness illustrate the range of preventive innovations attracting attention today. While some approaches may ultimately demonstrate meaningful impact, they require additional study before healthcare organizations can confidently invest in them at scale.
Why Evidence Matters
Evidence helps healthcare organizations understand whether an intervention improves outcomes, who is most likely to benefit and whether it can be implemented effectively in real-world settings. Some prevention strategies may show early promise, but questions often remain about scalability, long-term impact and performance across different populations. Evidence can help organizations evaluate those factors and make more informed decisions about where to invest limited healthcare resources.
A Framework for Smarter Prevention Investments
That challenge helped inspire the development of the Evidence-Based Prevention Continuum through the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network’s Evidence-Based Prevention Workgroup, which I co-chair with Asaf Bitton.
The framework offers a structured approach to prevention investments by recognizing that evidence develops over time. Rather than treating interventions as simply proven or unproven, the Continuum establishes five levels of evidence, ranging from Opinion-Informed and Emerging Evidence to Evidence-Based and Scaled Evidence-Based. It creates a pathway that helps organizations determine whether an intervention needs additional research, a pilot, broader testing or wider implementation. Not every intervention is at the same stage of development, and one of the framework's strengths is its recognition that different levels of evidence call for different next steps.
The framework also gives health plans, providers, employers, researchers, policymakers and investors a shared way to assess prevention strategies. Although these stakeholders may bring different perspectives, they face many of the same questions about the strength of the evidence, an intervention’s readiness and the appropriate level of investment.
Why This Matters Now
Healthcare organizations are under increasing pressure to improve outcomes while managing rising costs. At the same time, prevention technologies, predictive tools and wellness interventions continue to enter the market rapidly. Reliable evidence can help healthcare leaders distinguish between approaches that are ready for broader investment and those that require further study or testing.
Balancing innovation with evidence can help direct limited healthcare resources toward prevention strategies that deliver meaningful benefits for the people and communities they are intended to serve.
To learn more about the evidence and considerations behind the Evidence-Based Prevention Continuum, read the full article.