UnitedHealthcare and the AMA Collaborate to Understand and Address Social Barriers Preventing People's Access to Better Health
April 02 2019 - 06:00AM
Business Wire
- UnitedHealthcare and AMA support
using data for social determinants of health to improve and
simplify how referrals are made to social services
- Collaboration builds on both
organizations’ efforts to help underserved individuals and families
get on a path to better health
UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, and
the American Medical Association (AMA) announced a new
collaboration that will better identify and address social
determinants of health (SDOH) to improve access to care and patient
outcomes.
Building on work initiated by UnitedHealthcare, the two
organizations are working together to standardize how data is
collected, processed and integrated regarding critical social and
environmental factors that contribute to patient well-being.
Nearly 80 percent1 of what influences a person’s health relates
to nonmedical issues, such as food, housing, transportation, and
the financial means to pay for medications, utilities and other
services. Yet the health care system does not have a consistent,
organized way to capture those needs and then incorporate the data
into a person’s overall care plan.
Through this collaboration, UnitedHealthcare and the AMA are
supporting the creation of nearly two dozen new ICD-10 codes
related to SDOH. By combining traditional medical data with
self-reported SDOH data, the codes trigger referrals to social and
government services to address people’s unique needs, connecting
them directly to local and national resources in their
communities.
“UnitedHealthcare and the AMA share a common goal of expanding
the health care system’s perspective to consider the whole person –
not just medical care – by placing as much emphasis on people’s
social needs as on their clinical needs,” said Bill Hagan,
President, Clinical Services, UnitedHealthcare. “By working
together to leverage data, technology and the incredible expertise
of our network physicians, we can more effectively address the
social factors that limit access to health care.”
The collaboration between UnitedHealthcare and the AMA
illustrates a growing recognition of the partnerships that are
essential to the success of patient-centric health care. With a
consistent set of standardized data, health care organizations can
tap into local and national resources to connect people to social
and government services.
“The AMA is excited to work with UnitedHealthcare through the
continuing efforts of our Integrated Health Model Initiative (IHMI)
to foster collaboration around innovative data and
technology-driven processes for incorporating social determinants
of health into routine medical care,” said Tom Giannulli, Chief
Medical Information Officer of AMA’s IHMI. “The collaboration
reinforces the importance of social and environmental factors in
patient care, and will shape IHMI’s efforts to support clinical
decisions with useful and valid data to achieve broad improvements
in health and greater health equity.”
Typically, physicians and care providers use a system of ICD-10
codes to classify and record all diagnoses, symptoms, and medical
treatments and procedures. UnitedHealthcare has developed a data
model focused on standardizing the capture and processing of
SDOH-related information.
Essential to improving health and wellness are identifying and
aggregating critical factors of patient well-being, such as
employment, education, food, housing, access to transportation and
many other factors. UnitedHealthcare partners with national and
local community-based organizations to expand access to critical
social services for millions of people. Using its data model,
UnitedHealthcare has made more than 700,000 social-service
referrals for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans since
2017, providing an Imputed Market PriceTM of more than $250
million.
The AMA’s IHMI group is dedicated to ensuring that data
portability standards and semantic interoperability are openly
achievable and keep pace with innovation. Its work continues to
focus on market-driven needs in health care data interoperability
through the development of common data portability standards that
enhance information sharing and unlock potential improvements in
patient outcomes.
To view a video about UnitedHealthcare’s efforts to address
social determinants of health, go to:
https://newsroom.uhc.com/content/uhc/newsroom/expanding-access.html
1Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings Model,
2014.
About the AMAThe American
Medical Association is the powerful ally and unifying voice for
America’s physicians, the patients they serve, and the promise of a
healthier nation. The AMA attacks the dysfunction in health care by
removing obstacles and burdens that interfere with patient care. It
reimagines medical education, training, and lifelong learning for
the digital age to help physicians grow at every stage of their
careers, and it improves the health of the nation by confronting
the increasing chronic disease burden. For more information, visit
ama-assn.org.
About
UnitedHealthcareUnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping
people live healthier lives and making the health system work
better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience,
meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted
relationships with care providers. In the United States,
UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit
programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid
beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million
physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other
care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health
benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated
health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of
the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified
health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare
at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190402005243/en/
Steve
ShivinskyUnitedHealthcare763-361-2882stephen.shivinsky@uhc.com
Robert J. MillsAMA312-464-5970robert.mills@ama-assn.org
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