Medicare’s current strategy for health-related social needs is necessary but not sufficient

A growing body of research confirms the variable but pervasive presence of unmet health-related social needs (HRSN) among Medicare beneficiaries—experiences with food insecurity, housing instability, transportation barriers, and other social factors that impact health care use, costs, and outcomes. Some such evidence comes out of Medicare policy developments that have created major new opportunities for plans and providers to integrate HRSN into beneficiary care, such as the emergence of accountable health communities and other Innovation Center models, and of Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI).

Now, within the first half of 2022, a series of proposed rules and requests for information hint at regulators’ readiness to take their next steps regarding social risk factors, and the opportunities and challenges that await.