Social determinants of health impact people’s well-being and quality of life. These social determinants—conditions such as access to nutrition, safe and affordable housing, jobs, transportation, and access to health care—are some of the factors that lead to disparities in health and health care if they are not addressed. “Defining and assessing social determinants of health…
Health equity affects all of us—either directly or indirectly—and the lack of equity could be pushing us into a financial crisis. Health equity is the fair and just opportunity for every individual to achieve their full potential in all aspects of health and well-being. Health inequities cost us $320 billion a year. If we don’t…
Though providing hospital-level care at home is not a new concept, the popularity of such programs grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. As cases of the deadly coronavirus began surging in March 2020, healthcare organizations nationwide halted various types of in-person care due to capacity constraints and fears of exposing people to the virus. As they…
The U.S. health system has been evolving over the past decade to focus on the quality and value of care. Until recently, though, value-based payment models have not explicitly addressed longstanding racial and ethnic inequities in care. This month, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the not-for-profit health plan I lead, introduced a value-based payment…
In the world of value-based care and alternative payment models, 2022 has seen a heightened focus on health equity. In March, Dora Hughes, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer at the CMS Innovation Center, said the Innovation Center’s 10-year anniversary was a good time to look both back and forward at how its models impact health…
We predicted last year that there would be much attention on the inequities in our health care system. Will we continue to make progress and implement initiatives that right the ship? Here is what the experts have to say. And join us for the next few weeks as we look at what we might see in…
Education is a critical social determinant of health, largely because of its outsized impact on income and therefore other SDOH. There’s some clear-cut evidence underscoring the impact education has on overall health and well-being. In 2021, researchers published in PNAS that folks with higher educational attainment tend to live longer. Adults with a bachelor’s degree are expected…
Leaders at Atlantic Medical Group, a multispecialty physician network that is part of Atlantic Health System, in New Jersey, couldn’t figure out why the response rate for a patient-experience survey was so low among Spanish-speaking patients. The survey was in Spanish, but the response rate was just 8%, less than half the rate from the…
While the quality of U.S. healthcare and patient outcomes has generally increased over time, access to care — and thus to positive patient outcomes — is not equitable to all people. Overall, one in 10 Americans don’t have health insurance, which is fallout of a system breaking under the weight of high costs and deepening…
Food insecurity and low nutritional awareness contribute to multiple chronic health conditions in patients across the United States. Some diseases linked to food insecurity include hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, coronary heart failure, and kidney disease, just to name a few. Food insecurity is a persistent, growing issue, as many low-income urban and rural areas…