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THE ROLE OF PATIENT VALUE AND PATIENT-CENTRED
CARE IN HEALTH SYSTEMS
of different specialties and dispensing
pharmacies at some of Humana’s partner
clinics further improves the access to care from
a single bus ride.Another issue that members frequently raise
with Humana is food insecurity, a state that
correlates with markedly higher probabilities
of having certain chronic conditions, such as
diabetes and heart disease.^39 In partnership
with local food banks and Continucare,
a partner clinic chain, in 2016 the insurer
conducted a four-week pilot study in south
Florida of a possible intervention.Regardless of insurance carrier, patients who
came to one of three designated clinics were
screened for food insecurity. Of the roughly
1,500 people screened, the 46% who tested
positive then were offered a referral to meet
a representative of the food bank who was
on-site, to which 86% agreed. Nearly all also
accepted an emergency food box from that
representative. Finally, as part of the project,
social workers worked with those identified
to help make sure that the latter were getting
their entitlement of US government Food
Stamps.^40As a result of the pilot, says Dr Beveridge,Humana and its partners are currently
conducting a longer randomised trial to
determine if there are differences in hospital
admission rates and costs per member per
month between those connected up with food
banks and a control group who are not helped
to make such links.This study is part of a bigger strategy. Humana’s
“Bold Goal” initiative is working with physician
practices, non-government organisations, and
academic, business and community leaders
across 11 US cities to find scalable, evidence-
based interventions to address various social
determinants of health, including not just food
insecurity but loneliness and social isolation.This is not corporate social responsibility under
another name, but healthcare understood
broadly. Humana, says Dr Beveridge, is
studying various options with different costs
to see what is effective for a given population.
It will make decisions on which interventions
to scale up, based on those results. “We owe it
to each member to have a good idea what is
important to them,” he says, including while
they are still healthy. Doing so, he says, “will
keep them alive longer and we will spend less
money. That seems like a pretty good thing.”- Dominic Decker and Mary Flynn,
“Food Insecurity and Chronic Disease:
Addressing Food Access as a Healthcare
Issue,” Rhode Island Medical Journal, 2018. - Humana, Health Happens Where You
Are: 2018 Bold Goal Progress Report, 2018;
“Humana’s CMO Speaks of the ‘Bold Goal’
Embedded in the Company ’s Population
Health Work,” Healthcare Informatics,
September 14th 2018.