The juice is worth the squeeze: How efforts to address social determinants of health pay off

The healthcare industry is increasingly investing in initiatives upstream of the site of care to address broader population health issues and the downstream economic impacts of social determinants of health (SDOH). Organisations continually struggle, however, to define how to support a business case of high-impact, sustainable SDOH efforts. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) used publicly available data to conduct a diagnostic assessment of prominent healthcare providers’ existing ‘upstream interventions’ and produced a maturity score that reflects the success of these providers’ SDOH initiatives. This paper details three industry examples of leading ‘upstream interventions’ and examines the efficacy of each example in addressing SDOH. While healthcare providers can approach SDOH from a multitude of dimensions, their primary focus to support their business case should be formulating a strategy around their unique strengths relative to competitors in the context of the communities they serve. Further, providers that fail to prioritise SDOH run the risk of falling behind those who do push upstream initiatives, as costs of care continue to rise and brand recognition as a community leader becomes increasingly important.