Trust as a Foundation in Addressing Whole Person Health - Humana [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Caraline Coats
Caraline is VP of Provider Venture Investing at Humana.
She is also the Interim Leader of the Humana Foundation
[1:02] The role of trust in connecting healthcare and communities
“And if I think of the healthcare ecosystem, both clinically and social, it plays arguably the most important role. And from there, you can start to influence change and co-create solutions and measure and make mistakes together, right? And come back and learn and develop insights. Without trust, I don't think we really get to that meaningful type of impact.”
[2:47] Evolution of population health work
“So we see some pretty successful providers take their positive results and invest it in community health workers, transportation services, access to healthy food, addressing the health-related social needs, that are addressing the whole person health needs of our members much more effectively than perhaps years ago.”
[6:39] Framing whole person health
“And as we started understanding how important those health-related social needs are on the long term quality of life, and the word whole person health, and now we call human care, is really a part of our mission and DNA.”
[10:16] Collecting data on health-related social needs
“So while there's some noise in it, as there will be, six, seven years of data all directionally showing the power of being able to affect someone's self report on how they feel lonely or social isolation compared to how they're feeling physically or mentally. I mean, they often say the best predictor of our health is how we feel.”
[17:20] Connection between physical activity and health outcomes
“And we do see connections between those who are, at least signed off or enrolled in these programs directionally have longer term, better quality in health outcomes and results. And it's hard to determine, is that because of the actual physical activity or were there group and community classes? is that because of the social connection? And there's an interaction there that we may never know, but I think it plays a beneficial role to people in different ways.”
[21:26] Expanding access to physical activity opportunities
“There's not one answer, not even by community or population, I think. So it's a constant marriage of understanding our individual member needs, barriers in the community, building trust within the organizations in that community, and then connecting all of those dots to try to find the best solution. Whether it's physical activity, or food or transportation, or loneliness, or crime or safety, right?”
[24:32] Best practices in addressing health-related social needs
“But when you're focusing on population health, you have to let your competitive guard down, right? You have to bring in your competition and other payers. And if we're in a community, right, this isn't about improving just the health of those who have Humana insurance. This is about improving the health of the members in the community.”
[26:03] Pandemic accelerating focus on whole person health
“There's an increased level of support to study different and more pilots around addressing health-related social needs. So we can deliver more and more proof points to ultimately change reimbursement and benefits and all of the business impact things we want to do to truly embed whole person health into the way we structure healthcare.”
[27:49] Best practices for building trust
“Taking time to listen and understand the needs at an individual level, but also at a community level. And then consistently showing up and being present to try to bridge the gap for the right solution.”
