Doors without errors: How policies, technologies and partnerships power connected social safety nets

The concept is so simple and practical: no matter how individuals enter health care or social care systems (via the emergency department (ED), primary care office or community food pantry), they should be able to easily get all the resources needed for the healthiest life in their lives.

This “gate-free error” approach envisions an integrated system of providers, resources and workflows that enables any front-line provider to quickly and efficiently connect individuals to the services they need. Whether it’s medical services for chronic diseases, access to food or housing assistance or behavioral health services, effective connections are just a few clicks.

However, the current process is more complex and disconnected.

Despite awareness of their health problems, the pantry still cannot connect customers to health care. ED nurses may know that they offer community-based organizations (CBOs) that offer medically tailored meals or groceries, but what if that nurse doesn’t transfer when the patient comes in? A primary care provider (PCP) may find that the patient can’t afford the medication or has no transportation to date, but can do nothing to help them solve it.

As health care leaders and policy makers increasingly recognize that medical intervention alone cannot solve the health crisis in our country, it is crucial to integrate social care into health care services. The challenge is connecting different systems to eliminate silos and make social care work at scale.

Through the convergence of proactive policies, advanced technologies and strategic public-private partnerships, we can achieve this “gate without error” vision and provide an interconnected, simplified social safety net that is more effective, economical and effective. This is the method.

Despite political changes, policy continuity

Although each new Politics can use different language to articulate its priorities, the underlying intentions to address overall health remain the same. For the Biden administration, this means focusing on healthy equity in underserved populations, while Trump’s team focuses on providing a broader initiative for all underserved and vulnerable people, regardless of race, race, or other demographic factors.

From every political perspective, this awareness that everyone deserves to be care is crucial. Regardless of the approach, the reality is that more than 100 million Americans (including half of American children) rely on social safety net programs to meet these needs and drive costs for taxpayers, healthcare providers, hospitals and health plans. The top priority for everyone.

To this end, continuity in key policy areas is required:

• Address medical, psychological/emotional and social needs through holistic interventions, prevent chronic diseases and manage them. For example, diabetes is not only a medical condition, but also emotionally, lifestyle and socially unnecessarily ignored.
• The Food as Medicine program provides access to nutritional education and healthy foods in every socio-economic sector and geographically. Telling someone that what they should eat if they are out of access doesn’t help because they are one of the 47 million Americans living in food-insecure homes.
• Implement policies nationwide to repay CBOs to provide health-related services. Because CBO operates on the profit margins of razors, reimbursement creates sustainable funds to support their important work that directly affects health outcomes.
• Integrate social needs screening, recommendations, and follow-up with patients with complex conditions throughout the healthcare ecosystem, including quality measures and reimbursement models so that providers and care teams can connect people to services as part of their care – and get paid for it.

Technology to achieve seamless connection

In fact, the only way to achieve a “gate without errors” is to ensure that everyone in the ecosystem has universal access to the doorway to the same network.

These include providers and CBOs (people who provide services on the frontline), as well as health plans and health information organizations to facilitate data sharing, integration and qualification screening; service delivery of data information; and ensure HIPAA compliance.

However, the solution is not about replacing the system, but rather establishing seamless integration with existing integrations, allowing providers to run in their familiar workflows, such as their Electronic Health Records (EHRs), rather than switching between separate portals.

With a closed-loop referral system, health plan data and real-time access to community resource information are embedded in the care management process, so providers can automatically verify patient qualifications and match them to resources.

For example, after verifying coverage in the EHR and entering patient screening data, an ED provider may receive an alert that the patient is eligible for food assistance or shipping certificates. Then, with just a few clicks, the nursing team can refer patients directly to these services.

This is a very efficient and logical model with the potential to change the way you manage, deliver and measure care.

Innovative partnerships, collaboration

Putting all the required entities together is crucial to achieving the full potential of a “gate without errors”. While these partnerships can be led by health systems and health programs, some of the most effective partnerships are taking place at the state level where people can find help in food, housing, utilities, transportation and more in their local communities.

The ideal partnership creates a comprehensive, interconnected social security network through collaboration:

• National health sector, providing policy frameworks and funding
• Health information organizations promote data sharing and technology infrastructure
• Community action agencies participate in CBO
• Medical plans and hospitals that integrate social care into healthcare services
• A technical platform for seamless communication among all participants

In this model, each organization works in its own system – EHR in case management tools and healthcare providers in CBO – associated with a shared infrastructure that helps contribute to efficient, elegant care coordination.

Vision of the future: any service of any door

Creating an integrated social safety net requires collaboration across policies, technologies and partnerships. The foundation already exists in current policy frameworks that view health determinants (SDOH) as essential health care factors. As technology becomes more complex and user-friendly, successful models show that public-private partnerships can create sustainable systems while meeting individual needs and population health goals while achieving fiscal efficiency goals.

“The door without error” is not only a desire, but a reality that can be realized, and it can continue to promise overall intervention, privacy protection and collaborative problem solving. Scalability requires ongoing support for innovation funding, integrating technology development that prioritizes replacement and ongoing commitment to public-private partnerships.

Only by leveraging a comprehensive collaborative approach to leveraging the strengths of all departments can we create the connections, efficient social safety nets that all Americans deserve.

Photos: Elenabs, Getty Images

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