The Future of Medicaid: What is the Next Generation of Medicaid SDoH Solutions?
Last week, the Reema Team joined an amazing group of healthcare leaders at the Medicaid Health Plan of America (MHPA) annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona. We were honored to not only exhibit, but share the stage with Socially Determined and UnitedHealthcare for a session called “The Future of Medicaid: What is the Next Generation of Medicaid SDoH Solutions?”
Speakers on this panel included:
- Kevin Moore, Chief Executive Officer, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Wisconsin
- Ashley Perry, Chief Solutions Officer, Socially Determined
- Justin Ley, Chief Executive Officer, Reema Health
- Eddie Garcia, Partner, Healthsperien – Moderator
The hour-long session was packed with insights and quotable content, but the themes that emerged focused on two things: precision and people. Here’s what we learned.
Precision Leads to Better Outcomes, Through Data and Engagement
A large portion of the panel session focused on data and how we can use analytics to more precisely identify, measure, and address social risk factors. Kevin Moore with UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Wisconsin mentioned throughout the conversation that most plans have the ability to reach 80% of their members on their own, and do an amazing job of getting those members the care and services they need.
But it’s the remaining 20% that are unengaged, hard to reach, and clinically complex—a population that often needs healthcare interventions the most that they simply can’t reach. These are the members health plans need help engaging, and that’s where partners like Socially Determined and Reema come in.
Risk models based on precision data and analytics provide a complete view of risk to bring the right interventions, programs, and partnerships in a way that’s scalable, sustainable, and equitable.”
From a data perspective, engaging hard-to-reach members and identifying social risk is about precision. Sometimes, that requires us to look even closer than the block level to understand a population, especially when those people are unengaged. If we’re looking too broadly, we won’t see the greatest concentration of need, so a level of granularity is necessary to determine the right partnerships and interventions for specific populations.
Further, we need to ask how we can use data and analytics to understand the needs of members that aren’t engaged? Ashley Perry from Socially Determined discussed the development of risk models at the community and individual level that can uncover social needs that don’t require any engagement to identify, which allows for a complete view of risk to bring the right interventions, programs, and partnerships in a way that’s scalable, sustainable, and equitable.
People Connecting with People is the “Secret Sauce” to Meaningful Engagement
Another key theme that emerged during the panel was the notion of connections and touch points that really drive engagement and ultimately, ROI. Kevin Moore spoke about how the engagement “secret sauce” really is people connecting on a human level. It’s not all about screenings and referrals, it’s more about how to build trust with more meaningful touch points, leading to more connectivity and ultimately, better clinical outcomes.
Over the course of a 9 month period, Reema’s Community Guide had 40+ touch points with this member in order to secure housing. How many times have you talked to your primary care doctor or your parents in the last year?”
One of the ways this connectivity point was driven home was through a member story. After a divorce, this member lost their home. Their Reema Community Guide had 40+ touch points over a 9 months period in order to help this member secure new permanent housing. This required a great deal of trust and relationship building to make it happen. The point being, the number of touch points to make progress and impact outcomes is more than you’d think. When we talk about ROI we need to change the conversation as it relates to SDoH because every touch point takes time and this is a new ROI that we need to consider.
The Future of Medicaid SDoH Solutions is Partnership
As we look to the future the key message of this session was to consider partnerships in the right places for the right members.
We’ve heard speakers at this conference saying that you can have the greatest program in the world, but if nobody uses it it doesn’t matter how good that program is.”
Justin Ley with Reema spoke about how if solutions like Reema are going to partner with health plans, we need to be able to play well with others and understand how our solution can compliment another to help more members. Beyond complementary solutions, we need to think even further and consider how we can partner to serve complementary populations and which solutions can make the biggest impact on certain member segments.
The type of culture we need to facilitate in this industry should be built on partnerships that get members the care they need. It shouldn’t matter who is getting the member engaged, it matters that needs are being met.”
We know that the members that Reema works with aren’t necessarily the same members that Socially Determined works with, and the same goes for the 80% of members that the health plans are able to engage on their own. We know where our strengths lie and it’s time for us to strengthen our partnerships within the SDoH landscape to better engage more of the right people with the best possible solutions for the best possible outcome.
Reminder: Join Reema’s Webinar “The Art of Trust: Creating Better Health Engagement & Member Relationships That Last” on October 12th
Make sure to join Reema & UHC for our webinar with MHPA on Wednesday, October 12th. You’ll hear how community-based outreach that focused on building relationships drove higher engagement, boosted program utilization, closed gaps in care, and dramatically reduced costs. All while building trust through a member-centric approach.
Join this case study-oriented session to learn:
- How to build a lasting member engagement outreach strategy that impacts outcomes
- Why trust and shared identity are key to re-engaging high cost, high need members
- How UHC was able to drive significant cost reductions and boost member engagement through Reema’s community-based approach
Thank You for Visiting the Reema Booth!
If you attended #MHPA22, we hope you had a chance to swing by the Reema booth to meet our “Reema Rangers”, pick up a bandana, and learn more about how we’re working to bridge the gaps between health care and social care.
Our navigation theme for this year’s event was inspired by Reema’s mission, our team’s love for the outdoors, and something that everyone can get behind: spending time adventuring in some of the most beautiful lands on earth, America’s National Parks!
Finally, a big congratulations to the 3 winners of our annual National Park pass giveaway! That’s all for now—we look forward to meeting you at the next event.
