Creating new opportunities for patients in their day-to-day lives can help improve health outcomes, says Brian Pieninck, president and chief executive officer of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of the Mid-Atlantic.
To address the “inextricable link” between economy, environment, community and people’s health trajectories – social determinants of health or, Pieninck’s preferred terminology, social drivers of health – the healthcare industry must address its structure. Aiming for progress and then course correcting are necessary to break barriers for those struggling to access the $4 trillion healthcare industry, he says.
For example, recent events like the Change Healthcare cyberattack and subsequent claims-payment-processing outage can are a sobering reminder that healthcare needs to be constantly vigilant about ensuring continuity in healthcare delivery – and that patients can count on that commitment.
The healthcare industry structure, “which has not always done a great job of meeting people where they are,” has to be reconceived and thoughtfully adjusted, Pieninck told Healthcare IT News on this week’s HIMSSCast.
Pieninck – who is also the board chair of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association board of directors and chairman of the board for the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare – highlighted several tools and programs that are changing the SDOH paradigm by improving access and shared insights on the role of artificial intelligence in meeting healthcare’s challenges.
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Talking points:
- How the Change Healthcare cyberattack strained healthcare.
- What it means to put “hands on the wheel” of social drivers.
- The role of artificial intelligence in solving some of healthcare’s biggest challenges.
- The people side of improving healthcare access.
- Why workforce development is something health plans support.
More about this episode:
No single technology is the perfect answer to pop health
Using tech to get to health equity-social determinants of health link
Health equity hindered by SDOH coding roadblocks
ONC creates SDOH toolkit for communities
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.
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