From federal lawmakers to pharmaceutical companies, plans, providers and other health care stakeholders, efforts are coalescing to address social determinants of health (SDOH): the socioeconomic factors that create barriers to care and medications and risk worsening health outcomes. Initiatives are ramping up in response to COVID-19’s disparate impact on vulnerable populations and communities across the U.S. and include pharma collaborations with payers and health systems focusing on social determinants relevant to medication adherence and access.
As one pharma industry consultant puts it, the ongoing pandemic, now past the two-year mark, “has exposed and exacerbated the fractures in our health care and social delivery systems.”