Paying for population health: Case studies on the role of the health system in addressing social determinants of health

With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AcademyHealth launched the Payment Reform for Population Health initiative in 2016 to explore improving community-wide health through the transformation of the health care payment system. As part of their efforts to identify the opportunities and challenges associated with linking payment reform to population health, AcademyHealth requested development of four case studies of sites where health systems were actively involved in addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) including housing, employment, education, food security, transportation, healthy behaviors, and neighborhood and built environment. With these criteria, the following case study sites were selected having respectively developed interventions focused on medically complex homeless individuals, people with chronic diseases, pregnant women and their newborns, and uninsured individuals with multiple chronic conditions: Burlington, VT; Muskegon, MI; Cincinnati, OH; and Greenville, SC. Each of the following case studies includes a detailed description of the intervention, outlines enabling factors, and provides considerations for the future.