Clinical care adjustments based on socioeconomic adversity

Recognizing and accounting for the impact of poverty and other forms of social adversity on children’s health is increasingly considered foundational to providing equitable, high-quality care. Multiple, ongoing initiatives from major national health professional organizations and payers—including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and The Joint Commission—focus on standardizing social risk screening across clinical settings. Health care delivery systems are currently preparing to implement these mandates, meaning that, shortly, very specific information about children’s social conditions (eg, transportation barriers, utility and food security, and housing instability) will be readily available for each patient during clinical encounters. The pressing question is whether clinical teams will be able to meaningfully use this information to improve children’s health outcomes and health equity. In this Viewpoint, we review common social care activities in health care settings, describe opportunities to expand social care interventions to improve clinical care quality, and highlight strategies that may facilitate adoption of these additional activities.