Readers Write: Social Care Data: The Key to Unlocking Community Health

Social Care Data: The Key to Unlocking Community Health
By Carla Nelson

Carla Nelson, MBA is senior director of healthcare policy at Findhelp.

Rising healthcare costs in the US demand innovative solutions, and social care data is emerging as a critical tool for driving informed decisions and improving community health. Policies that are promoting high-value care and funding for social services like transportation and medically-tailored meals show promise but face significant hurdles, including a lack of standardized data. Without a clear picture of community needs and resources, decision-makers struggle to optimize investments and implement effective strategies.

Social care data – such as health-related social needs (HRSNs), referrals, services received, and program availability — fills critical gaps in understanding community health. Technology can play a pivotal role in collecting, analyzing, and sharing this data, enabling its integration with datasets like healthcare claims, Medicaid member files, and public data sources such as Census data or CDC indices. These combined datasets provide actionable insights, empowering organizations to identify unmet needs, allocate resources efficiently, and improve service delivery. By integrating social care data with healthcare and other datasets, technology can enable more effective policies, investments, and service delivery strategies.

Analyzing patterns in social care searches or service usage can uncover gaps in available programs. For example, if a region shows high demand for food assistance but limited service availability, this insight can guide resource allocation and program expansion. Similarly, aggregated data on social care needs can help measure the capacity of community organizations and inform targeted investments.

As social care systems become increasingly digitized, ensuring the privacy of sensitive data is essential. Unlike healthcare data, which is protected by HIPAA, social care data lacks comparable safeguards. Organizations and governments must prioritize stringent privacy measures, ensure consent-driven data collection, and adopt policies to protect individuals’ sensitive information as they seek assistance.

To harness the potential of social care data, readers can take these key steps:

1. Invest in Data Infrastructure

• Advocate for and allocate funding to modernize data collection and sharing systems.
• Support community organizations in adopting technology that enables real-time data sharing and analytics.

2. Promote Cross-Sector Collaboration

• Build partnerships between healthcare providers, community organizations, and government agencies to share data and insights.
• Facilitate the integration of social care data with other datasets to create a comprehensive view of community needs.

3. Advance Data Standardization

• Participate in initiatives to develop and adopt standardized formats for social care data to enable consistent use and sharing.

4. Prioritize Privacy and Consent

• Implement robust privacy policies and ensure individuals provide informed consent for the use of their data.
• Stay informed about evolving regulations to protect sensitive information.

5. Leverage Data for Decision-Making

• Use data to identify gaps in resources, track outcomes, and guide investments in social care programs.
• Share insights with policymakers to advocate for targeted interventions and funding.

6. Educate Your Community

• Raise awareness of the importance of social care data among stakeholders, emphasizing its role in improving community health.
• Provide training on how to use data tools and analytics for effective decision-making.

Advancing the infrastructure for social care data is essential to make informed policy and investment decisions. Challenges remain, including limited technological capacity for many community organizations and early-stage standardization of social care data. However, progress is underway. States and organizations are leveraging new technologies to integrate health and social care, building seamless referral systems, and creating platforms for effective data sharing.

As social care data capabilities mature, they will unlock new opportunities to understand and address community needs, leading to more effective policies, smarter resource allocation, and improved health outcomes. Investments in data systems and technology today are paving the way for a healthier, more equitable future for all.