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SDoH Analytics and Cost Management

Unhealthy populations increase costs now and in the future.  Breaking down barriers to underutilization of preventative care services and regular PCP visits is a fundamental tool for cost management.

Digging into social determinants of health reveals new insights into which parts of your population may be underutilizing care more significantly than others.  This helps identify and then break down barriers. Prioritize where you focus innovation.

Here are some interesting insights recently shared at an innovation conference and luncheon roundtable.

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Spotlight

How do SDoH Analytics help Cost Management?

What should health benefits look like now?

Health care is changing quickly.

Read about the top 5 trends in health care and the analytics you can use to navigate plan design with confidence.

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These are the trends

SDoH Impacts

Quantify them

Point Solutions

Measure ROI

Total Well-being

Understand connections

Omni-Channel

Connecting it all

Engagement

Reverse delayed care habits

Which analytics help us make informed decisions?

Read on for analytics you can use to navigate the sea of benefits design options.

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Looking for more?

Read about key trends and what this means for employers.

Connecting trends to benefits strategies
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Top 5 Health Care Trends

SDoH insights - Let's understand and trust the data we use in analyses.

How do we do that?

SDoH analytics requires a lot of data, and different types of data. Claims data tells us about health care visits. Digital device data tells us about daily health. And special data sets let us delineate the social and environmental factors that could influence each member.

In SDoH analytics, we understand each person as an individual and in context, but look at a community as a whole in aggregate, to see what trends and patterns emerge.

How do I know if I can trust this SDoH data?

Here are 5 important aspects to consider, and tips of what to look for, so you can trust the insights in your SDoH analytic endeavors.

  1. How is the data integrated?
  2. How specific and granular is the underlying data?
  3. What is the social determinant being analyzed?
  4. Can you clearly understand the definitions and data sources used for insights?
  5. How trusted is the health data itself?

Let’s dig into some more details on each.

#1 - The data model

How is the data organized and connected together?

Wellness means care and lifestyle choices. This data is scattered across many different places. Health analytics must integrate complex claims data structures and lifestyle data at an individual person level. SDoH analytics should also be connected at a person level. This way, the data is ready to serve all the analytic questions you may ask, without additional data preparation and delays.

#2 - Granularity

What level of detail characterizes the data sources used?

The more granular a data set is, and assuming it is associated at a member-specific level, the more trustworthy and usable your SDoH insights will be. Think about the variation of social and environmental factors you see across an entire zip code. Now think about the degree of variation you see within a neighborhood. A Census Block Group is akin to a neighborhood. This means if you have source data that has a Census Block Group level of granularity, you are seeing only the degree of variation across neighborhoods, not entire zip codes.

Here are two tips for building out a new solution:

  1. TIP: Find out the options you have around individual member address data. Ask questions about the quality and completeness of these fields. Ideally your solution will have the flexibility to use or assemble the most complete collection of member addresses possible.
  2. TIP: The best solutions offer a member-level integration to at least census block group level.  That associates people to the social and environmental factors known to a neighborhood level of insight.

 

#3 - Specificity

Which factor are you investigating?

Social and environmental factors cover a broad range of influences on health. Air quality or water quality? Economic hardship or transportation access? There is so much we can do if we have lots of different SDoH indices to choose from. For instance, one HDMS client is looing at the transporation index alongside the technology index to assess the potential usefulness and impact of a mobile unit verse a virtual solution for specific care services. Locations with low transporation AND low technology indices are prioritized for mobile services, while other locations are suitable for virtual care alternatives.

Here are two tips for building out a new solution:

  1. TIP: Make sure your solution offers data and SDoH indices that meet broad investigative needs.  Most organizations have many questions and require multiple SDoH indices. In a discovery phase – a few options let users understand opportunities to act impactfully based upon different criteria.
  2. TIP: Consider ways to allow analytic journeys to mature. Composite indices can be great for initial analysis. As a team starts to work on designing for a barrier or opportunity, a more specific SDoH indice will reveal important nuances or details.


HDMS offers over 25 SDoH indices and dimensions.

Start with composite indices that allow you to look broadly across a number of factors at once.  Use focused indices to support very specific or nuanced investigations, like food access or social isolation.  They can also be used together – for instance the transportation index and the technology index example we shared above.

#4 - Transparency

What are the definitions behind the numbers?

Have a good understanding of which social or environmental factor you are investigating and where that index is sourced. There are a wide variety of options. Nothing will be perfect. Some indices are more complete, more granular, more recently or frequently updated, than others. As you interpret results, have transparency around the process leading to the metrics. This will help everyone interpret and apply insights better in the long run.

One last tip:

TIP: Enriching claim data delivers fast and intuitive investigations. This makes SDoH analytics easier too.

Enrichment can have many forms: classify claims by episode treatment groups (ETG), apply pharmaceutical classifications, and flag specialty druges. Enrichment processing also identifies gaps in care and low value care and makes it easy to surface these individual moments into analytics.

ER visits that have been classified using the NYU methodology allow you to quickly look at who visited the ER for non-emergent care, just by using a few filters.  Now think how powerful it is to further see these visits by income index.

#5 - All the data

What’s the quality of your core health data sources?

As we think about integrating new data to investigate social determinants of health, we naturally focus on the new data – the addition. But we need to link that to core health data. Let’s not forget the quality and usability of those systems or sources. The data quality processes surrounding your traditional analytics are a critical part of trusted SDoH insights.

Simple, Powerful.

Check out how easy it is to include Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) factors into an analysis.

 

Easy to use – more time for driving change.

HDMS Enlight offers the most comprehensive out of the box SDoH analytics on the market.

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SDoH Insights - Data you can trust

 

 

 

Social Determinants of Health – Analytics

How are organizations approaching SDoH in their analytics? What are they doing given the insights and measurements they find?

Here are some specific examples of HDMS client projects.

 

See how organizations use insights for action and innovation.

 

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Organizations are using SDoH Analytics to tackle:

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion initiatives
  • Removing systemic or community barriers
  • Prioritizing areas of investment
  • Tracking progress in closing equity gaps
  • Designing for people in context

Get SDoH overviews

Look across a number of areas and get an immediate understanding of the basics.

Things like care gaps by Socioeconomic index.

Also dig into focused areas

Analytics like mental health needs for disadvantaged segments.

HDMS clients – have your team walk you through available possibilities. There’s so many new options. Where will you take this next?

We’ll help tailor new analytic views to any specific needs you have.

Ready to use

You’ll have answers at your fingertips. There’s plenty of questions to ask.

  • 12 Dashboards
  • 26 SDoH indices and dimensions
  • 95 measures

See it in action

See how easy it is to look at how social determinants influence your population.

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SDoH Analytics

 

 

SDoH Insights – fast!

How fast to SDoH insights?

So many options, tied directly to YOUR population

SDoH insights – take your analyses one step further.

See how easy it is to look at how social determinants of health influence your population.

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SDoH insights – so many options, tied directly to YOUR population