Citation

Horwitz LI, Chang C, Arcilla HN, Knickman JR. Health Aff. (Hope) 2020; 39(2): 192-198.

Affiliation

James R. Knickman is a clinical professor in the Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and senior research scientist at the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation)

DOI

10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01246

PMID

32011928

Abstract

The past decade has seen a growing recognition of the importance of social determinants of health for health outcomes. However, the degree to which US health systems are directly investing in community programs to address social determinants of health as opposed to screening and referral is uncertain. We searched for all public announcements of new programs involving direct financial investments in social determinants of health by US health systems from January 1, 2017, to November 30, 2019. We identified seventy-eight unique programs involving fifty-seven health systems that collectively included 917 hospitals. The programs involved at least $2.5 billion of health system funds, of which $1.6 billion in fifty-two programs was specifically committed to housing-focused interventions. Additional focus areas were employment (twenty-eight programs, $1.1 billion), education (fourteen programs, $476.4 million), food security (twenty-five programs, $294.2 million), social and community context (thirteen programs, $253.1 million), and transportation (six programs, $32 million). Health systems are making sizable investments in social determinants of health.

Language: en

Keywords

Accountable care organizations; Community health; Costs and spending; Education; Health policy; Hospital quality; Medicaid; Social determinants of health; Systems of care; hospitals