Medicaid and health-related social needs: Four insights over four years

People struggling to secure food and housing also struggle to stay healthy. This reality is glaringly obvious, and painfully urgent for so many. But what can Medicaid do? Over my four years with the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), I’ve helped state Medicaid agencies, health plans, and community-based organizations think through issues regarding health-related social needs (HRSN) and social care integration. Much of my work has involved partnering with states on primary care innovation efforts, specifically, and how to better identify and address unmet HRSN in the context of those efforts. This blog post outlines four lessons from the last few years for supporting health care stakeholders to meaningfully address unmet HRSN, with a focus on state activities relating to advanced primary care and Medicaid managed care.