Addressing social drivers of health through innovative payer-provider data sharing

UnitedHealthcare announced a first-of-its-kind initiative to share social drivers of health (SDOH) screening data between UnitedHealthcare and health care providers through electronic health records (EHR). Through seamless, bi-directional sharing using Epic’s Payer Platform and the Health Plan Clinical Summary, health care providers can now reference this SDOH data to tailor their care plans to address clinical and social needs simultaneously.

This collaboration with Epic and the provider community expands the social care infrastructure to help us better understand our members’ holistic needs and streamline information sharing to improve health outcomes. This effort is just one step in our work to identify and help meet the diverse and crucial needs of the members we serve, including things like access to care, affordable housing and nutritious foods.

In the United States, it is estimated that approximately 60% of health outcomes are driven by social drivers of health (SDOH). These factors, such as access to healthy food, affordable housing and reliable transportation, can significantly impact health outcomes. To better understand and address the needs of our members, UnitedHealthcare has developed an innovative SDOH screening and sharing program.

In 2023 alone, UnitedHealthcare screened over 6.9 million members for SDOH and assisted at least 918,000 members in fulfilling at least one social need. This data-driven approach is crucial for improving health outcomes and ensuring that members receive the support they need.

Alan Hutchison, vice president at Epic, emphasized the importance of this initiative: "Payer Platform was created to improve collaboration between payers and providers and simplify the health care experience for patients. Sharing SDOH information is an important next step toward that goal. Connecting people with the resources they need can help them attend appointments they might otherwise miss, access mental health resources and ensure they have healthy food on the table."

Our collaboration with Epic aims to connect more members with resources to help address their social needs, including supplemental benefits, case management and community-based organizations.