Highlighting the Importance of Population Health Management

Having a strong population health management program is essential to having a successful health system. These programs have the chance to improve the quality of care and reduce costs.

Lately, population health management and addressing the social determinants of health have come to the forefront of healthcare.

Take the American Association and UnitedHealthcare collaboration that was announced in April. The two entities are working to standardize how data are collected, processed and integrated regarding critical social and environmental factors that can impact a patient’s well-being.

And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services updated its Medicare Advantage plan with a focus on the social determinants of health to give patients higher quality of care at lower costs.

“Population healthcare management has really come to the forefront with the knowledge that taking care of individuals really depends a lot on taking care of the community and taking care of other pieces around them that influence their health,” John Bulger, MBA, chief medical officer at Geisinger Health Plan, told Inside Digital Health™ at World Health Care Congress.

Bulger added that by looking at a certain population, physicians can better tailor care to meet the needs of that specific community and improve their overall health.

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