Compared to other wealthy countries, the United States has some unusual healthcare spending habits. Other developed nations like Germany, France, and the UK spend nearly twice as much on social services as they do on healthcare but in the United States, we spend almost twice as much on healthcare as we do on social services. However, there’s a growing consensus that social and behavioral factors determine over 60% of health outcomes and are better understood as intersectional health issues. There’s also significant evidence that shows that higher spending on social services addresses health outcomes more effectively than investing in healthcare alone. It’s clear that our priorities are misplaced.

At Healthify, our software engineers collectively represent 52 years of programming experience, which is a detail not that interesting on its own. All of us learned how to code and at some point in time we each started doing it for money. Duh. We didn’t, however, all go about doing this in quite the same way. As a matter of fact, we have an eclectic mix of educational backgrounds in our department and those details are fascinating.

As the US Healthcare System continues to lag behind other developed nations in the relationship between healthcare expenditures and outcomes, more healthcare organizations are responding to research demonstrating that medical care is not the primary factor that determines the health outcomes. Indeed, major healthcare organizations are shifting investment towards initiatives that can help address the behavioral, environmental, and social determinants of health (SDoH).

“The places where people live, learn, work, and play”, known as the social determinants of health (SDOH), have been estimated to contribute from 40%-60% of an individual’s health outcomes.  For some time it has been known that community health workers (CHWs) play a significant role in improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of care within a patient population. In fact, a report published by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Health, in 2016, showed how targeted CHW programs achieved returns on investment ranging from $2.28 to $4.80 for every dollar spent. Due to such studies, insurers, managed care organizations (MCOs) and other large health institutions are placing a greater emphasis on SDOH and many have begun to manage them more robustly.

At Healthify, we believe that health is a human right, and that health disparities are largely influenced by socioeconomic factors such as access to housing, food, education, and employment. These factors are commonly known as the social determinants of health.

At Healthify, we believe that there is more to health than healthcare. This belief is a part of everything we do - through our technology, our deep relationships with community partners, and in the strategic partnerships we build. Today, I’m excited to announce that Purple Binder, a pioneer in the development of community health solutions, will be joining the Healthify team. A union that is driven by a shared mission to build a world where no one’s health is hindered by their need.

Addressing Social Determinants of Health

Much evidence has been generated about the influence that unmet social needs have on our health. Social determinants such as food insecurity, access to affordable housing, and transportation play a significant role in an individual's health, accounting for more than 40% of health outcomes. We experienced the barriers that existed in identifying social needs, accessing the right information to address those needs, and the lack of accountability that made it difficult to close the loop on specific services while working in Baltimore.

We built Healthify to enable healthcare organizations to connect with community partners who can reduce the number of unmet social needs in a community. Through our platform healthcare organizations can implement their social determinant initiatives at scale and make operational, workflow and referral changes to understand and address the social determinants of health on the ground. In four short years, we've grown from a platform covering only four states to one that reaches over 15,000 healthcare staff across the county. Purple Binder joining our team is a continuation of that growth that will deepen our presence in the public sector and in critical areas of the country, like Chicago and California.

Following the closing of our Series A round, led by BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, we’ve increased our focus in the development of solutions that connect healthcare and community partner stakeholders together to move the needle on social determinants. The integration of Purple Binder's community partner networks and data with Healthify allows us to increase our reach and strengthen our outcomes data to provide our clients with a better understanding of what success looks like for them. We’re building a stronger evidence-based infrastructure, for patients, healthcare organizations, governments, and community agencies to work together to improve health outcomes and reduce the cost of care. 

Studies have shown that there is a significant link between food insecurity and higher health care costs in the US. Those with food insecurity were found to incur an extra $1,863 in health care expenditures ($77.5 billion in additional health care expenses annually). And while we have previously written about the negative health effects of food insecurity and combatting food deserts in our blog, Healthify Insights, we have yet to dive deeply into the efforts that have been made to address this costly issue. As such, we have compiled fours years worth of Healthify's food insecurity data, enriched with data from the US Census Bureau and other publicly available sources, to understand the correlation between food insecurity and other socioeconomic factors across three metropolitan cities: Seattle; New York; and Philadelphia. Our report also investigates how food insecurity is being managed across these cities.