Placement: University of California, San Francisco
Mentor: Laura Gottlieb, M.D., M.P.H. (Director, Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco)
Co-Mentor: Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. (Director of the Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research [CHOIR] and Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley)
Project: Health Care Reform and Population Health: Approaches Being Developed Under New Payment Models to Address Non-Medical Determinants of Health
Hugh Alderwick is a 2017–18 U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor to the Chief Executive at The King’s Fund in London, an independent think tank working to shape health policy and practice in England through research and analysis. Alderwick has published research on range of topics including NHS reform, integration of health care and social services, and opportunities for the NHS to improve value for money. He leads The King’s Fund’s research program on current regional planning processes in the NHS, provides policy advice to the NHS and government, and recently carried out a review for the Department of Health on measuring the performance of local health systems. Previously, Alderwick worked as a consultant on care improvement in the NHS and managed Sir John Oldham’s Independent Commission on Whole Person Care (2013–14). The Commission was established by the Shadow Secretary of State for Health in 2013, and made proposals for how the NHS and social services in England could be better integrated to meet people’s physical, social and mental health needs.
Project Abstract: There is growing interest in the role of health care systems in the United States in addressing patients’ social and economic needs. The same is true in the NHS in England, as well as in other countries. Yet despite the large body of evidence documenting the impact of the social determinants of health, far less is known about what health care systems can do to address them. The project aims to understand how new approaches to address patients’ social and economic needs are being developed within the U.S. Medicaid system. The study will be based on qualitative research in select states using alternative payment and delivery models — such as Medicaid waivers and accountable care organizations (ACOs) — to encourage providers to address the social determinants of health. It will focus on the interventions being developed to address patients’ social and economic needs, as well as how these approaches are being implemented in different contexts. The research will provide lessons for policymakers and practitioners in in both countries as they seek to design new approaches to improving population health.
