Peter Long, executive vice president of Strategy and Health Solutions at Blue Shield of California, is a contributor to a new white paper exploring how health plans can work collaboratively to unlock social needs and social determinants of health data to build a healthcare system capable of meeting individual social needs and developing thriving communities.
The paper, Closing the Gap between Needs and Solutions: How Health Plans Can Facilitate Data Use to Address Social Needs and Social Determinants of Health, was guided by Blue Shield of California’s Industry Initiatives team, led by Shruti Kothari, in collaboration with Golden State Health Policy and BluePath Health. The findings are compiled from interviews with over 40 stakeholders including subject matter experts, health plans, government, health information organizations, community-based organizations, providers, health analytics platforms, and referral platforms.
The piece was recently published on STAT Health and discusses specific actions health plans can and should take to improve our health record infrastructure, authentically engage with community-based organizations, and scale solutions.