New collaboration will study and address social barriers to better health achievement

UnitedHealthcare and the American Medical Association (AMA) have formed a new partnership that will focus on and address the social detriments of health (SODH) to improve healthcare access, patient outcomes and well-being.

The group says the initiative will also support the creation of nearly two dozen new ICD-10 codes related to SDOH. Standard medical data combined with self-reported SDOH information will generate codes that trigger referrals to social and government service, giving patients a direct connection to local and national resources in their communities.

Nearly 80 percent 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 states UHC, adding that the current healthcare system isn’t structured in ways that can easily identify underserved populations and place information about specific conditions into patient care plans.

ICD-10 codes are generally used to classify and record all diagnoses, symptoms, and medical treatments and procedures but UnitedHealthcare has developed a data model focused on standardizing the capture and processing of SDOH-related information including as aggregated critical factors of patient well-being, such as employment, education, food, housing, access to transportation and other important factors.

“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, in the statement. Using its data model, UnitedHealthcare says it has made more than 700,000 social-service referrals for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans since 2017.