Seth Berkowitz Puts A Figure to Social Determinant Health Spending

Limited access to transportation is well established as a barrier to people obtaining health care services. If it's hard to get to the doctor, you're less likely to go and that means delays getting needed care, poorer management of chronic conditions, and more use of the emergency room.While health insurance typically covers emergency transportation, say for an ambulance, coverage of non-emergency transportation to get you to a doctor's visit is less common. Medicaid, which serves people with low incomes, has covered this type of transportation for decades, but it's become increasingly clear that plenty of people with incomes above the Medicaid eligibility threshold face significant transportation barriers.Thus, some insurers and health systems have begun to offer a non-emergency transportation benefit as well.Seth Berkowitz from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine joins A Health Podyssey to discuss the effect of providing a transportation benefit.Berkowitz and colleagues published a paper in the March 2022 issue of Health Affairs assessing the effects of a non-medical transportation benefit offered to members of a Medicare accountable care organization.Enrollees had very positive reactions to the program, but it was also associated with more outpatient visits per person per year and thousands of dollars more in outpatient spending.If you enjoy this interview, order the March 2022 Health Affairs issue to get research on hospitals, health equity, care delivery and more.Listen to Health Affairs Pathways.Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts