Peter Long, chief healthcare transformation and affordability officer at Blue Shield of California, is leading new research into healthcare delivery during the pandemic.
He has co-authored a new report that focuses on how these changes were tied to social determinants of health — economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status.
In a white paper published today by the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium, Long and his co-authors concluded:
“The pandemic has both provided momentum to implement long overdue changes in health care delivery (e.g., flexibilities for virtual care) while highlighting the need to accelerate ongoing efforts to transform payment systems. Notably, COVID-19 has also fostered new, innovative partnerships between payers and other sectors, such as collaborations with public health departments to improve disease surveillance, coordination with community-based organizations to meet patients’ social needs, and joint ventures with the pharmaceutical industry to advance biomedical innovation.”
Long recently accepted a seat on the consortium. The white paper was written with a group of payer and policy experts on what health transformation work was deployed during the pandemic. The piece also focuses on two Blue Shield initiatives – the Neighborhood Dashboard tool and BlueSky program.
Read the full report here.