Background

In the wake of a pandemic that has exacerbated longstanding health and economic disparities, it has become clear that our country cannot achieve its health and health equity goals without addressing the social, environmental, and economic factors that drive eighty percent of health outcomes. Scalable, sustainable integration of drivers of health (DOH) into the health care continuum requires changes in the way we define, measure, and pay for care. In January 2021, Manatt and The Health Initiative published Investing in Health: A Federal Action Plan, describing seven pragmatic strategies to address DOH through federal and state policy and program changes for Medicaid, Medicare, the Marketplace and the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Innovation.

In a series of three meetings, we worked together to move the Investing in Health agenda into action, with the goal of launching and/or enacting 15% of the specified 45 policy/program changes within the next year. These convenings were working meetings attended by a small group of key decision-makers, health care influencers and topic-specific subject matter experts. Your participation has been critical to this effort to challenge assumptions, identify barriers to change, and leverage our collective experience and insights to break them down.

Convening #1: Building on the Movement from Value to Health: Integrating Drivers of Health into Medicare and Medicaid Payment Models

The first meeting focused on how to build on the movement from value to health, by integrating DOH into Medicare and Medicaid payment models. Specifically, the goal was to define an actionable, three-year glide path to scalable changes in provider and plan reimbursement that broadens our understanding of coverable services and integrate DOH risk factors to incentivize improvements in health. The convening drew heavily from the specific Medicaid and Medicare policy and program changes in the Investing in Health action plan.

Convening #2: Integrating Drivers of Health into Quality Measures

Convening #3: Infrastructure and Shared Assets