KPMG announced it is integrating social determinants of health (SDoH) data from revenue cycle provider Waystar to KPMG’s Clinical Intelligence (KCI) platform. The integration will harness SDoH data that can help overcome obstacles to medical treatment and affect outcomes to help with care coordination.
The Impact of Social Determinants of Health Data
Social, environmental and economic factors – such as transportation, housing, nutrition, and education level – can have a big impact upon medical outcomes. Healthcare providers are making SDOH a greater priority as their finances are increasingly tied to quality or other “value-based” measures.
Clinical Intelligence Platform Overview
KCI, which runs on Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure platform, will use the SDOH data as a cohort to help healthcare providers manage clinical variation, offering greater insights into the quality of care delivery and the most appropriate care setting for patients. KCI is designed to help healthcare organizations reduce their variation in care by enabling them to identify “pain points” in their performance, such as high length-of-stay or readmission rates that can reflect on quality. The information allows healthcare managers to understand factors behind their organization’s performance, track progress on improvement, and gain insight into systemic patterns of care.
A 2018 Waystar survey found that 68% of consumers had at least some level of SDOH challenges. The most commonly reported issues are financial insecurity and social isolation. Individuals with high social determinants of health stress are 50% more likely to suffer from chronic conditions and 2.3 times more likely to rate their health as “fair” or “poor.” Clinicians have started conversations with patients about SDOH: 22% of consumers with social stresses reported having discussed these issues with their physician, and 40% of “high risk” segment consumers have discussed their issues with a provider or their insurance company.
Why It Matters
“KPMG and Waystar are providing a decision tool for clinicians to gain insights about what happens outside the four walls of a hospital or doctor’s office,” said Larry Burnett, advisory principal at KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm. “Social factors can have a profound influence upon whether patients are adhering to treatment plans and can overcome barriers to care delivery. Waystar’s data fit nicely with KCI, which serves as the foundation for our Care Continuum Optimization program that helps clinicians optimize clinical care and deliver treatment in the most clinically appropriate setting.”