A New Way to Measure Health May Be Just What’s Needed to Improve It

Measuring health usually means blood tests or height and weight measures. But there are other factors, like having a safe place to call home and nutritious food, that have just as much to do with health. How should these be measured?

Until now, the healthcare industry has been limited to measurements for physical health and in recent years, behavioral health. If 80% of health comes from factors outside the healthcare setting, that means 80% of health is not being measured. This missing piece propelled Elevance Health to develop the Whole Health Index (WHI) to measure the social factors that contribute to individual health and the health of communities.
 

Elevance Health Takes Action

“Everyone in the healthcare industry is talking about whole health, but we’re taking action,” said Monica Schmude, president of the Elevance Health-affiliated health plan in Virginia. “The WHI allows us to see a person’s whole health profile and identify ways to help them in a way that’s most beneficial to them.”

Analytics and data measures have been used to analyze physical health. For example: What percentage of people get vaccinated? How many people develop chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes? Who is consistently using the emergency department instead of seeing a primary care physician?

“With these familiar measures, what creates and sustains health is overlooked,” Schmude said. “Data provided by the WHI helps us identify and understand why people are not getting vaccinated or what’s leading them to develop ongoing conditions.”
 

Collaborating with Employers

Everyone experiences health-related social needs (HRSN) -- even those who have employer-sponsored health plans, as a recent Elevance Health-sponsored study confirmed. This was a topic of conversation recently between Schmude and the chief human resource officer (CHRO) from a locally based, multi-state employer. The CHRO stated that the company was experiencing 90% employee turnover in its newly opened, rural Ohio location.

“The CHRO had a theory that lack of transportation was the cause of the high turnover,” Schmude said. “The data available through the WHI turned the theory into fact.”

Employer health plan sponsors can examine employee trends against county data with the goal of providing additional benefits to meet the unique needs of employees in a specific geographic area. Employers can use the WHI to identify social drivers that, along with physical and behavioral health, influence employee performance, productivity, and retention. Then they can offer additional benefits to mitigate those barriers, such as a stipend for a bus or train pass to improve transportation access.

When employees get the support they need, positive outcomes can build on each other. Employee retention can improve. Employer health plan rates can stabilize. Emergency department visits can slow. Depression rates may decrease, while overall mental health improves. As a result, the health of communities can improve as well. Leveraging the power of the WHI helps create this needed paradigm shift across the healthcare industry.

Learn more about the Whole Health Index and hear more of Schmude’s insights now.