Shawn Bassett, Executive Director Collaborative Health Systems at WellCare Health Plans, discusses how Experian Health social determinants of health data allows them to address the full picture of the patient, and identify underlying issues such as transportation or food insecurity.
What are social determinants of health?
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the non-medical factors of healthcare that account for up to 80 percent of health outcomes. When patients struggle with access to care, they’re less likely to follow treatment plans or show up to important follow-up visits. Some of these social and economic factors include challenges such as:
- Transportation
- Housing and financial instability
- Food insecurity
- Social isolation
- Education
- Unemployment
- Access to green space
Not having a holistic view of patients, outside of the standard clinical data, could result in patients being readmitted and turning to more emergency visits than necessary. Additionally, providers might experience poor quality ratings and less reimbursements and payers could see unnecessary rising costs. If you’re looking to solve for social determinants of health and gain a more holistic view of your patients, we’re here to help.
Addressing social determinants of health
Solving for social determinants of health leads to real savings for your organization and better health outcomes for your patients and members. Make strides toward improving your Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and Star ratings that consider health outcomes and patient engagement strategies.
$200
Attributed to wasted physician time per no-show visit
$10,000
Daily rate for unnecessary hospital stays
$2,000
Rate per visit for avoidable emergency department visit
$209B national average
Avoid penalties from Pharmacy Quality Alliance for non-adherence
Use social determinants of health models to deliver holistic care
With deeper insights, you can be proactive and prevent negative health outcomes. Enable your staff to stratify the needs of patients based on access-to-care needs. Our solutions provide you with analytical expertise, machine learning, and powerful proprietary data. You no longer have to rely on patient surveys that require interpretation and staff resources. Get more than a score. With our social determinants of health offering you gain:
Deeper insights
Justifications behind the score so you can learn more about why the score was assigned
Actionable recommendations
Non-clinical recommendations to engage with patients to address their barriers to health
Socio-economic data
Patient-level insights on 300M+ US consumers, helping you answer important questions around demographics, engagement preferences, individual behavior, and lifestyles and interests.
Challenges associated with addressing social determinants of health
- Fragmented patient view leading to relying on clinical data only
- Lack of staff to collect insights because surveys take time and resources, leading to manual data entry
- Reliant on the validity of patient responses, perception, and willingness to be surveyed