4 SDOH Barriers Payers Can Address to Drive Access to Care

While access to care progress has stalled nationwide, payers can continue to move it forward within their own businesses by addressing four key barriers. Uninsurance is dropping, yet access to care continues to suffer due to rising health costs, a recent JAMA Internal Medicine study found. Nearly six percent more among the uninsured population did not access care due to affordability struggles and 11.5 percent of the insured avoided a doctor’s visit for the same reason. The trend was noted even in early 2019, when a Commonwealth Fund study argued that the lack of improvement in overall access to care could be attributed to stagnant coverage gains and climbing uninsurance.  Fewer patients are uninsured but more are underinsured, which can prolong the access to care plight for patients even though they have coverage, the study pointed out.