Dive Brief:
- HHS announced a $157 million grant pilot program to link Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with as many as 44 social service organizations to potentially improve health and reduce costs. The program details were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- The "Accountable Health Communities" project, headed by the CMS Innovation Center, will work to identify patients' non-medical needs and connect them to available services in their communities. This will include services related to housing, food, personal safety, transportation, and inability to pay utility bills.
- Eligible applicants for the pilot program include hospitals, health systems, universities, and community-based organizations capable of developing a referral network of community social service providers. Applications are being accepted until Feb. 8 by the CMS with the winning proposals announced later this year.
Dive Insight:
This is the first federal attempt to examine social needs and learn how community partnerships among healthcare providers and non-medical social services might improve healthcare delivery. Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, told Modern Healthcare, "If we want to see better health results and lower costs down the road, then addressing social factors has to be a part of the package." She added that the program will provide the CMS an opportunity to address barriers to partnerships between clinicians and social services.
Income has been one of the largest social factors correlated with health. A 2014 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America report showed 23% of African-Americans who earned less than 100% of the federal poverty level had "poor to fair" health compared to 6.8% who had incomes more than 400% of the poverty level. Andrea Ducas, a program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said, "We know that so much that goes into health happens outside the doctor's office. More and more I think we're seeing clinicians and providers paying attention to this, so this definitely feels like an evolution that's consistent with where the field is going."
"For the first time, we are testing whether screening patients for health-related social needs and connecting them to local community resources like housing and transportation to the doctor will ultimately improve their health and reduce the cost to taxpayers," said Sylvia Burwell, HHS Secretary. "The Accountable Health Communities model is yet another step toward building a healthcare system that results in healthier people and stronger communities and spends our healthcare dollars more wisely."