Social determinants of health

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.

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, face financial hardship, or don't have access to technology, 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
• Financial 
• Technology

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. 

• 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

Access our CORE Model heat map of geographic populations across the United States most susceptible to developing cases of severe COVID-19, which would likely result in excessive strain on healthcare resources (and potentially other, associated, supply chain, community infrastructure and policy impacts).