By Sara Heath
- A total of $3 million in funding for social determinants of health pilot programs has squeaked by in the omnibus bill Congress recently passed largely to push out some COVID-19 relief.
The nearly 6,000-page piece of legislation, which includes $600 in stimulus checks to be sent directly to Americans, includes language taken from the 2019 Social Determinant of Health Accelerator Act. The 2019 bipartisan legislation, which first circulated the House of Representatives in July of that year, sought to provide state and local funding to design social determinants of health intervention programs.
The bill would have helped state Medicaid programs and other eligible entities navigate the complexities of social determinants of health programming.
The language included in the 2020 omnibus package draws from the 2019 bill, setting aside a large sum of money for social determinants of health pilot projects.
“We must deliver innovative solutions to overcome social factors that are harmful to our health such as food deserts, long drive times, loss of services and beyond,” Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, one of the House bill’s original co-sponsors, said of the recent omnibus.
“The $3 million pilot program based on my Social Determinants Accelerator Act will help local governments do just that by empowering them to create plans to tackle these issues head on in our communities,” she continued. “The current public health crisis has only underscored the need for this critical program and I’m proud to see it pass today so we may build back stronger and healthier.”
The Social Determinants of Health Pilot Program will endow the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention with $3 million to operate the program. CDC will allocate funding to state, local, territorial, or tribal leaders to help fund social determinants of health work.
Grantees must offer up a description of what they wish their social determinants of health pilot plan may accomplish. This should include which social determinants of health grantees plan to target and the intended outcomes of a certain intervention.
Additionally, grantees must identify its target populations for certain social services interventions and the non-governmental entities or community health partners who will be essential for the program.
These pilot projects will serve as a learning opportunity for the rest of the healthcare community, the legislation’s architects asserted. Grantees must convene with government leaders to discuss how to develop Social Determinants of Health Accelerator plans. In other words, grantees must be willing to discuss their successes and lessons learned with government leaders and other healthcare stakeholders.
CDC has 120 days to determine how it will roll out this programming.
“This legislation will catalyze the cross-sector collaboration and planning necessary to make the promise of a whole-person approach a reality,” Krista Drobac, the co-chair for Aligning for Health, which originally found the SDOH language tucked within the recent omnibus, said in a statement after the House originally announced the Accelerator Act.
“This bill will give state and local officials the resources they need to get beyond the silos and develop innovative approaches to complex problems.”
It is fitting that SDOH language made it into an omnibus bill that most prominently addresses the current COVID-19 pandemic (although the bill also accomplishes a slew of priorities for both the left and the right).
The pandemic shone a light on social determinants of health that led to a number of health inequities and eventually health disparities related to the disease. Certain social determinants of health, like job type, housing status, experience with the justice system and incarceration, and use of public transportation, are tied to COVID-19 infection.
This has played out in stark racial health disparities. Black and Latinx people are significantly more likely to experience social determinants of health than their White counterparts, making them more likely to have contracted the illness. As it stands, CDC reports Black and Hispanic people have become sick with the virus at a disproportionate rate to their total share of the US population.
Inclusion of SDOH in the recent omnibus may be a good step forward in both creating interventions to address those social health issues and create a more permanent path forward.
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December 24, 2020 at 08:30PM
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Social Determinants of Health Pilot Bill Passes with COVID Omnibus - PatientEngagementHIT.com
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