How UPMC Coordinates Compounding Social Determinants of Health

Payers can no longer ignore the social determinants of health that impact its member’s lives. Countless studies have linked housing, food insecurity, transportation, and access to care to negative health outcomes. Yet tackling each of these issues can be a challenge for payers as these risk factors are outside of its traditional responsibilities and benefits packages.   For over a decade, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health Plan has been implementing various initiatives across the organization to address member’s social determinants of health. One of its most successful programs, the Cultivating Health for Success, partnered with a local housing and urban development vendor to coordinate a team-based approach that integrates permanent housing and intensive case management for individuals experiencing homelessness. In the first five years of the program, UPMC showed a savings of over $6,384 for each of the 51 members it was able to house.