New guide helps providers address health-related social needs

Mounting real-world evidence shows universal screening for health-related social needs in routine clinical care offers a standardized way for health care providers to identify needs, tailor care, and help patients resolve these needs with referrals to community resources. Yet screening for patients’ social needs can seem like a daunting task for clinical providers. One strategy for providers is to first identify patients’ social needs by administering a screening tool such as the one developed for the Accountable Health Communities Model, a nationwide initiative funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. The model is testing the impact of systematically identifying and addressing health-related social needs among Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. To help providers administer the screening tool, Mathematica developed, on CMS’s behalf, a set of instructions for users called “A Guide to Using the Accountable Health Communities Health-Related Social Needs Screening Tool: Promising Practices and Key Insights.” (author introduction)