Alliance for the Determinants of Health

The Alliance seeks to improve what is known as the social determinants of health — non-medical factors that affect people’s health — for SelectHealth Community Care (Medicaid) members by assessing needs and connecting members to resources. 

In the Alliance, the primary factors are defined as housing instability, utility needs, food insecurity, interpersonal violence, and transportation. The secondary factors are education, family and social support, income and employment, and health behaviors. 

“When we look at improving health, we see many influential factors that are well beyond the reach of the healthcare system. In fact, many people say your zip code plays more of a role in your health, and healthcare, than any other factor.”
Dr. Marc Harrison, Intermountain President and Chief Executive Officer.

The Alliance is based on the Accountable Health Communities model of awareness, assistance, and alignment.

• Awareness: Evidence-based screenings for social needs in healthcare and social service settings.
• Assistance: Coordination between healthcare and social service organizations to support SelectHealth Medicaid members in addressing their social needs.
• Alignment: Ensure that social needs can be met through resourcing of gaps in services, create shared metrics and workflow processes, build the capacity of healthcare and social service organizations to meet social needs, and address policy concerns.

“Where we see the Alliance benefiting us as the behavioral health provider is the opportunity it gives us to better engage the population we want to serve. It opens up new ways to reach out to those people we are confident we can help but are not accessing our services at this time.”
Michael Cain, Southwest Behavioral Health Center Clinical Director