Behavioral Health Integrator

In recent years, health centers have become increasingly interested in and charged with not only addressing the health concerns of their patients, but centering and responding to patient’s social needs. According to Healthy People 2030, social needs, also known as the social determinants of health, are the conditions in the environments where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Social needs encompass the quality of and access to resources such as housing, transportation, safety, employment, food, and more. Identifying and addressing unmet social needs as part of the clinical encounter provides the opportunity to deliver higher-quality, whole-person care, advance population health, and reduce healthcare costs.

In early 2018, KLAS researchers issued a report stating that the CommonWell-Carequality connection is the key to interoperability value^1,2. It is believed that when vendors fully embrace CommonWell and Carequality “instant value” will be created for users. This is an appealing promise to all healthcare providers, including health centers. So what should health centers know about this effort, and how should they prepare to capture the benefits?

AMA's Steps Forward Module discussed the adoption and implementation of telemedicine and telehealth, as well as telemedicine's opportunity to support patient and care team coordination and communication through remote patient monitoring.

Over the years, telemedicine has grown quickly as equipment costs have decreased and there is more support from a regulatory and reimbursement perspective. An implementation guide and webinars on related key topics are found within.