Giving Compass' Take:

• Health care insurers are making an effort to address the social determinants of health by building specialized programs and services into care plans. 

• Governments are giving health insurers federal funding and the flexibility to implement these programs,  however, what are the challenges that might come with executing them? 

• Read about human services' critical role in improving health care for everyone. 

The movement to better address the social and environmental factors that affect health has insurance companies and other payers looking beyond the hospital or clinic and stepping into the community to give patients help where it's needed.

That might mean giving patients free Lyft rides to the doctor's office; connecting them with a food bank or footing the bill for home-delivered meals, or financing temporary housing. Medicaid programs in some states are requiring insurers to screen beneficiaries for social and environmental factors that could lead to poor health.

While the concept of social determinants and how they affect health outcomes has been understood for years, the way some innovative health insurers and other organizations are helping patients with unmet social needs has evolved beyond isolated pilots or community benefit dollars to addressing those factors in a sustainable, scalable way.

Insurers have stepped up these efforts as they take care of broader populations and strike more value-based payment arrangements with providers. Government payers are also forming policies and implementing programs that give insurers more flexibility to address social determinants with federal funds.

A few organizations are experimenting with ways to invest in social determinants in a way that is scalable and sustainable long term. That's something the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is working on through an institute it launched in March.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Institute is testing whether it can improve access to transportation, food, pharmacies and fitness centers in a sustainable way by treating it like a business instead of a philanthropy, said Dr. Trent Haywood, chief medical officer of the Blues association and leader of the institute.

Read the full article about addressing social determinants to health by Shelby Livingston at Modern Healthcare