August 15, 2019
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) is a new industry buzzword, but it’s also a concept that’s existed for decades. Now it’s making its way into policy agenda as Congress tries to tackle healthcare costs, access and quality.
U.S. health policy and spending has traditionally been focused on the financial aspect of healthcare because it has been grounded in a transaction-based interaction. Medicine has been practiced as the act of diagnosing and treating a specific clinical condition. And in a fee-for-service environment, patients receive a bill for that care or treatment from their provider.
As medicine becomes more personalized, care is streamlined and coordinated between providers, the industry explores pay-for-value models, and the definition of and approach to patient care is changing to orient care delivery based on a person’s social, mental and physical status within their community.
Here’s how healthcare impacts health status (click to expand):
