While I am a practicing clinician, I am a firm believer that improvements in healthcare most often come from borrowing the best ideas from other business models. For example, I have sometimes borrowed from software company and payer colleague insights to describe value-based care (VBC) reimbursement as a subscription model. This model would provide more consistent revenue and allow organizations to better weather challenging times like a pandemic. For providers, this would allow freedom from the
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Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
The Crucial Role of SDOH Data in Value-Based Care
Roughly $4 trillion is spent on healthcare annually in the U.S. Despite this massive expenditure, roughly 80% of health outcomes are attributed to social, behavioral and environmental factors, known as social determinants of health (SDOH). What has been far less clear is how providers and payers can fully harness SDOH data to proactively manage the health of patients and members. Technological and cultural barriers have made it difficult for disparate parties such as
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Aunt Bertha Secures $27M to Expand Referral Platform for Social Services
What You Should Know: Today, Aunt Bertha, the nation’s leader in closed-loop social care networks and the company behind findhelp.org, announced it has raised an additional $27M in investment funding led by Warburg Pincus, had significant participation from existing investors including Pershing Square Foundation, Techstars Ventures, Noro-Moseley Partners, Digitalis Ventures and The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund (TSEF). - The financing will enable Aunt Bertha to enhance its
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Making Telehealth Accessible to Underserved Communities Requires a Multifaceted Approach
Over the last year, people across the U.S. have adopted telehealth in record numbers, signaling what people in the industry have long believed — virtual doctor visits and prescription delivery has the potential to truly increase access to high-quality, convenient care. The meteoric rise of telehealth has also come with its challenges, one of the biggest being equity. A recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine details that the people who use telehealth in the
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How NLP Can Uncover Social Determinants of Heart Disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Cardiovascular disease-related deaths—which occur every 36 seconds—cost our country about $219 billion each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People with poor cardiovascular health are also at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, so the time to act is now. There’s no time like the present to look at major risk factors—from obesity and
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Unite Us Nabs $150M, Reaching $1.6B Valuation to Address Social Determinants of Health
What You Should Know: - Unite Us, the tech company creating coordinated care networks nationwide, has just announced a $150M Series C round of funding led by ICONIQ Capital, bringing its valuation at $1.65 billion. - Unite Us is leading the care transformation movement towards whole-person health with its core product, Unite Us Platform, an outcome-focused coordination software sconnecting community-based organizations with health care providers, health plans,
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Achieving Financial Sustainability: A Connected Community of Care’s #1 Goal
“Show me the money!” No one old enough to have seen the 1996 movie, Jerry Maguire, will ever forget that memorable phrase. That simple but powerful phrase could apply to every person who punches a clock for a living and just about every business, including community-based organizations (CBOs) and Connected Communities of Care (CCC). For CCCs and other non-profits, a parallel but no less powerful phrase, “No margin, no mission,” also rings true― just ask Sister Irene Kraus of the Daughters
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City of Milwaukee Taps NowPow to Improve Health Equity & Outcomes
What You Should Know: - IMPACT, a designated provider of 211 information and referral services in Southeastern Wisconsin, today announced a groundbreaking collaboration with local health systems, community organizations and NowPow to power one of the nation’s most comprehensive, community-wide systems to connect health and social care and track outcomes. - As part of the partnership, IMPACT Connect will establish a shared digital platform for partner organizations across multiple sectors —
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Arizona to Implement a Statewide Social Determinants of Health Closed Loop Referral System
What You Should Know: - Health Current, Arizona’s health information exchange (HIE), today announced the selection of NowPow as the vendor of choice for Arizona’s closed-loop referral system (CLRS) to address social determinants of health (SDOH) needs in Arizona. - By connecting healthcare and community service providers on a single statewide technology platform, this new service promises to streamline the referral process, foster easier access to vital services, and provide confirmation
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Telehealth Helped Me Beat COVID-19, But It’s Just A Start
I was the voice of social distancing, a proponent of mask-wearing from the very start. Still, after months of keeping distance from loved ones, the idea of a quick, safe, outdoor family gathering on a beautiful fall day, even if we weren’t going to be wearing masks, was too good to pass up. A week later, I was sequestered in my bed, with a 103-degree-fever that didn’t break for 12 days, unrelenting migraines and aches, and what felt like an impossibly heavy weight on my chest, making
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