CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Launches Enterprise-Wide Social Risk Intelligence Strategy with Socially Determined
First of its Kind Initiative will Enhance Care Quality and Health Equity for the 3.5 Million People the Company Serves
Baltimore, Md., Washington, D.C. – Today, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst), a not-for-profit and the largest health plan in the mid-Atlantic region, and Socially Determined®, the healthcare analytics company that delivers Social Risk Intelligence™ to organizations committed to addressing the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), announced a first-of-its-kind, enterprise-wide expansion of Socially Determined’s SocialScape® platform and advisory services. Access to these actionable insights will support CareFirst’s mission to advance health equity and advocate for affordable, accessible, and quality care for members, employers and the communities they serve.
Using the SocialScape platform across job functions and business lines will empower CareFirst with greater visibility for identifying people who face elevated health risks due to social factors including but not limited to financial strain, food insecurity, housing instability, transportation barriers, and health literacy challenges. With this increased visibility, CareFirst will have the insights necessary to build highly tailored responses to people’s specific needs.
“We understand just how significant socioeconomic factors are in keeping people and communities healthy, and it’s clear that relying on just clinical and claims data is no longer enough for any healthcare organization,” said Stacia Cohen, R.N., Executive Vice President of Health Services for CareFirst. “As a healthcare company and community champion, having access to this type of information helps guide our investments and allows us to better understand the needs of the communities we serve.”
CareFirst initially engaged Socially Determined to provide intelligence and support for its $10.5 million investment in the State of Maryland’s Diabetes Action Plan, a statewide effort to address the diabetes epidemic. For this initiative, Socially Determined offered comprehensive insights used to deploy resources to communities and populations where they would have the most impact. For example, the team identified that within CareFirst’s commercial health plan, members with diabetes who also faced elevated risk of food insecurity and health literacy had an annual total cost of care that was over $3,000 higher than similar members who did not face the same social risks. Empowered by this information, CareFirst designed tailored, multi-factor interventions to meet the specific needs of these people.
CareFirst will leverage Socially Determined to support critical functions including, but not limited to:
- Helping employers better understand factors beyond clinical care that drive poor health outcomes for their workforce;
- Optimizing philanthropic investments in new community-based programs, partnerships, and interventions; and
- Ensuring care management teams are effectively reaching and supporting people with complex socio-clinical needs.
“CareFirst clearly understands the impact social risk has on delivering more holistic care and this initiative shows a huge commitment to addressing social risk by ensuring these insights and solutions are fully integrated into the decision-making process,” said Trenor Williams, MD, CEO and co-founder of Socially Determined. “CareFirst is leading the way in showing how health plans should look beyond claims and clinical data to better serve their people, and we’re proud to partner with them on this pioneering journey.”
About CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
In its 85th year of service, CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit healthcare company which, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products and administrative services to 3.5 million individuals and employers in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. In 2021, CareFirst invested $26.2 million to improve overall health, and increase the accessibility, affordability, safety and quality of healthcare throughout its market areas. To learn more about CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, visit our website at www.carefirst.com and our transforming healthcare page at www.carefirst.com/transformation, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
About Socially Determined
Socially Determined provides Social Risk Intelligence™ solutions to organizations committed to addressing the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) impacting their communities and populations. The company’s platform, SocialScape®, delivers insights into social risk dynamics and their effect on health outcomes and business performance through secure, scalable data processing and proprietary analytics. With SocialScape’s view of social risk and Socially Determined’s advisory services, clients can deploy interventions and investments that translate to quantifiable impact. Socially Determined is headquartered in Washington, DC and operates a second office in Blacksburg, VA. For more information, visit our website at www.SociallyDetermined.com, follow Socially Determined on Twitter (@SocDetermined) or LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/socially-determined).