The Problem: How to ensure people get the best care and stay as healthy as possible
The traditional healthcare model is fee-for-service. This basically means that people pay—via insurance or out-of-pocket—whenever they visit their general practitioner (GP), go to the emergency room, purchase prescription medications, get lab tests done, etc. This model tends to disproportionately favor customers with insurance, disposable income, and access to various healthcare resources. Conversely, because many of these services often incur exorbitant costs, it puts disadvantaged or uninsured populations at risk of not getting the healthcare services they need in order to stay healthy for the long term.
As a result of these inequities, the industry is beginning a slow migration toward a risk-based reimbursement model wherein resources get funneled into local health providers who can provide the right amount of coverage and better programs to support their patients’ healthcare needs. Because these healthcare providers on the ground are closer to their patients—and their respective health issues—they are in a better position to assume the risk by allocating the resources received in the best way possible to keep their patients healthy.
This begs the question: How can payers, providers, life sciences companies, and other players within the healthcare industry know where to allocate funds and resources to support public health in a more effective, locally-relevant way?
As a starting point, they need to have a clear line of sight into the social determinants of health (SDOH) that keep underserved or disenfranchised populations from staying healthy. This is critical for being able to pinpoint the right allocation of resources at the hyper-local level. Of course, a big part of this requires having access to accurate, real-time location data.
And here’s precisely where Socially Determined steps into the picture.
The Problem-Solver: Socially Determined
Socially Determined has a bold vision to be the primary source for delivering meaningful social risk insights that create impact at scale and make equitable healthcare a reality. But what does that mean exactly? In short, the company harnesses the full power of data to help payers, providers, life sciences companies, and others working in the public health sector to not only be able to identify the SDOH playing a role in a person’s healthcare journey but also to pinpoint the best way to funnel resources for addressing public health needs. Their groundbreaking work has the potential to transform the entire healthcare ecosystem for the better, helping to make it more inclusive, affordable, and focused on driving better outcomes.