During a featured session as part of Becker’s Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting in May, sponsored by Change Healthcare, two experts discussed how healthcare organizations and health plans can use SDOH to deliver human-centered care that is convenient, equitable, efficient and cost effective. The presenters were:
- Tim Suther, senior vice president and general manager of data solutions with Change Healthcare
- Summerpal Kahlon, MD, vice president, value-based payments with Change Healthcare
Five takeaways:
- To understand how different populations experience healthcare, what happens in the physician’s office must be paired with life outside the clinical setting. In the United States, a person’s healthcare experience is highly influenced by their economic stability, as well as their race and ethnicity. “There is a direct correlation between economic stability and the likelihood that a person will receive care in the emergency room,” Mr. Suther said. “Unfortunately, the healthcare system doesn’t do a great job of understanding patients’ economic profiles. Connecting a patient’s clinical experience with their social determinants of health is vital if our endgame is to deliver on more equitable healthcare.”
- SDoH data can be used for retrospective analyses, as well as to generate predictive insights. Healthcare organizations can use SDOH information in a variety of ways, such as improving operations, predicting which individuals are high risk and potential high utilizers and driving community resources and care-management programs. “Once you understand the complexities of a person’s day-to-day life, you will find opportunities to meet them where they need help,” Dr. Kahlon said.
- Before organizations can deliver more equitable healthcare, they must first diagnose where they are. “In medicine, you must diagnose before you prescribe,” Mr. Suther said. “Organizations need to understand how the healthcare experience varies by race and ethnicity, by country of origin and by language preferences.” That information will inform how interventions and protocols need to change.
- Change Healthcare works with payers, providers and researchers to predict utilization, acuity and expense. Change Healthcare recently partnered with a large national payer to identify members’ SDOH and then deploy appropriate outreach programs. By engaging dual eligible members early, the payer connected those individuals with programs designed to improve their health, while reducing utilization. For another large payer, Change Healthcare identified members with specific barriers to care, such as a lack of transportation, through appointment scheduling. “Many people want to be involved in their healthcare,” Dr. Kahlon said. “They aren’t hiding from the system; we just need to tailor the right programs and outreach to engage with those individuals.”
- To launch an SDOH initiative, organizations need to start with the end in mind and focus on the patient. Understanding the key dimensions of healthcare like frequency, utilization and economics can drive clarity and focus. Another best practice is to establish clear goals and metrics and then identify the programs that will support those objectives. It’s also critical to align SDOH work with existing organizational priorities.
To view this session on-demand, click here.
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