We’ve officially kicked off The Social Determinants of Health Policy Forum, with more than 300 policymakers, policy experts, and practitioners from across the health and social services sectors for workshops, networking, and solution-focused sessions to explore the current and future state of social determinants of health policy.
Conference Co-Chair Krista Drobac, MPP, co-chair, Aligning for Health, kicked off the day with opening remarks. While looking ahead to the new year starting under a new administration, she reminded the room, “we need to buckle up for what’s about to come.”
“We need to change our language, our messaging, new case studies, different things that are important to the incoming group of leaders in Washington.”
Co-chair Sandra Elizabeth Ford, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.P., public health expert, CEO, BFT Consulting, LLC, former special assistant to the President for public health and science, White House Domestic Policy Council, echoed the tenacious sentiment.
With the SDoH Policy Forum in it’s third year, Ford related to the qualities she often saw in her three-year-old patients during her time as a pediatrician for a symbol of what everyone’s mindset should be as the new year approaches.
“Three-year-olds say two main words: ‘why’ and ‘how,’ which is appropriate for where we are right now. In our development, we’re going to have to figure out some ‘why’ and some ‘how’s,” she said. “Three-year-olds also know how to throw and catch…we’re going to need to be able to do that in the next upcoming years. But three-year-olds also learn how to play well with others. It’s going to be important for us to understand this developmental stage.”
The day was filled with insightful and eye-opening conversations across the SDoH space. Here are four key takeaways to keep top-of-mind in 2025.
Much can be done at the state and local level to continue progress in addressing SDoH, regardless of the federal government’s involvement.
During her opening keynote address on the future of SDoH policy in federal programs, Jessica Schubel, special assistant to the President for Health Care at the Domestic Policy Council, Executive Office of the President, White House Domestic Policy Counsel, underscored the power of state and local level initiatives to solve for health-related social needs.
While Schubel reviewed a variety of accomplishments in the SDoH space under the Biden administration at the national level, she emphasized how critical state and local efforts were to moving the needle forward and achieving that progress.
“This takes a village. We could not have made as much progress over the last four years without your help, whether that was connecting people to new services, helping people sign up for health insurance regularly. From the bottom of my heart, just want to say thank you so much for advancing our collective goals in the health care space,” she said. “We've accomplished a lot, but there's more work that is needed. And I strongly believe this work can happen at the state and local level, especially given the uncertainty that we are now facing with federal efforts going forward after January 20th.”
Listening is your strongest tool to guide focus areas
During a panel discussion reflecting on accomplishments throughout 2024, Dr. Ernest Moy, executive director, Veterans Health Administration Office of Health Equity, and Alexandra Bryden, sr. policy advisor, Office of Minority Health (CMS), shared the practices that have helped their organizations address SDoH.
While discussing efforts to promote equity at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Bryden shared how the agency has conducted and leveraged listening sessions to collect direct feedback from members to guide CMS’ focus areas. It was those listening sessions that helped CMS set five equity-related priorities, including data collection and analysis, the drivers of disparities, workforce support focus, language access, and individuals with disabilities and accessibility.
Dr. Moy said the Veterans Health Administration Office of Health Equity has found similar success in leading with listening. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency identified a disproportionate number of veterans of color coming in sick as well as a lower vaccination rate among the same group. The agency opened direct communication with veterans of color to better understand any hesitancies or barriers to vaccination to guide their approach throughout the pandemic.
Dr. Moy also stressed the importance of how you speak with your members when asking for feedback. “We ask our veterans not ‘what’s the matter?’ but ‘what matters to you?’
Meet communities where they are
We also heard from a panel on the evolution of health-related social needs (HRSN) data collection in federal programs. The panel discussed the evolving landscape of HRSN data collection through federal programs and its transformative potential for health care providers, payers, health systems, and community-based organizations (CBOs), the latest policy changes and future directions related to the data collection, and the impact of this data on health care delivery, policy-making, and community health initiatives, providing valuable insights into how diverse stakeholders can collaborate to leverage this information for better health outcomes.
But in a world where so many organizations are collecting data differently, meeting communities where they are is key to making progress, according to Jessica Little, VP, business development and programs, Civitas Networks for Health, a national, not for profit organization that brings together member organizations working to use health information exchange, health data, and multi-stakeholder, cross-sector approaches to improve health.
“We firmly believe that nothing national can happen without local implementation,” Little said. “So, we work closely with our partners to help our members translate some of the policy that is happening at the federal level and also create bidirectional channels of communication between local implementers, policymakers, and others.”
Karen Hacker, director national center of disease prevention and health promotion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also highlighted the importance in meeting communities where they are and providing additional support when it comes to data collection and utilization, which can be costly.
“We want to get data into the hands of the people who need it at the community level to be able to make the decisions that they want to be able to make without them having to pay and arm or a leg for it,” Hacker said. “It costs a lot of money to do some of these surveys, they take a long time and to repeat them regularly is even more difficult. So, if we can offer that support from a national level, hopefully that will also save additional resources that can be spent better to support those who need it.”
Commit to removing bias and discrimination in the health care delivery process
Bias and discrimination in health care show up in many areas, and it was evident in a panel discussion on innovative approaches to improve maternal health equity.
While discussing the current state of maternal health equity in the United States, the panelists each shared a statistic they feel describes where we are with maternal health in our country. The stats were eye-opening:
- When you control for education and socioeconomic status, we still see extreme disparities in maternal health outcomes. For example, a Black woman with four degrees and well-resourced is still at a higher risk of having an adverse maternal health outcome than her less than high school educated white counter.
- Half of maternal deaths occur the day after a woman gives birth. And 40 percent of individuals don't get a postpartum appointment in the U.S.
- Thirty-five percent of counties in the U.S. are maternal care deserts, meaning they are an area without a single birthing facility or obstetrician clinician.
- All women in the U.S. fare worse in childbirth compared to other high-income countries, and Black and Brown women face even greater disparities.
The discussion stressed the urgent need to address not only the health-related social needs women across the country face but the bias and discrimination they face in their health care journey as well in order to improve the health outcomes of moms and babies.