What You Should Know:
– Priority Health, a nationally recognized nonprofit health plan, announced today that it has launched a first-of-its-kind “full lifecycle” social determinants of health (SDoH) initiative.
– Recent research has shown that SDoH, or social factors like access to healthy food, transportation options and financial security, may be responsible for up to 80% of health outcomes.Priority Health’s first-of-its-kind program enables the insurer to proactively identify social risk among its members, initiate culturally resonant engagement, connect people with critical resources to address their needs, and repeatably measure the impact to refine future programs.
Comprehensive Approach to SDOH
This comprehensive approach to SDOH can have a far-reaching impact on Priority Health’s members and the communities it serves because it’s much more targeted and strategic than any other program. There are a lot of resources being invested in SDOH – in fact, providers spent $2.5 billion between 2017-2019 – and the numbers are only increasing. But there’s a lot of guesswork in where to direct those funds, and very little measurement to learn from what’s working or what’s not.
Partnership with Socially Determined, ConsejoSano and Aunt Bertha
To create this data-driven, full lifecycle approach, Priority Health has partnered Socially Determined, ConsejoSano and Aunt Bertha, bringing together industry leaders addressing different aspects of SDOH in a way that no one else has done yet. One key component that drives this novel SDOH program is its ability to objectively measure outcomes, this allows Priority Health to understand the impact of its social programs to refine and improve future initiatives.
Priority Health’s partnership with Socially Determined allows it to measure impact in a standardized and repeatable way to iterate and apply new insights back into the lifecycle. This will help drive decisions around future community investments and social services collaboration and make sure resources are being directed in ways that make the biggest impact.
“When looking at social determinants of health or how to address health inequities, it is important to understand that every individual’s life experiences and needs are different. Having access to information that clearly shows which social factors are most critical for our members allows us to take that next step and connect the member with the right resource,” said Praveen Thadani, President of Priority Health. “Through this new, full lifecycle program, we can better serve and engage with our members when it matters most.”
