Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)

Within the past few years, there has been an uptick in government focus on health equity.  Beginning in 2023, Medicare-certified home health agencies will be contributing data to CMS with new OASIS-E items which are dubbed “social determinants of health (SDoH)”.    The components of SDoH are ethnicity (specifically asking about Hispanic, Latino/a, or Spanish origin), race, preferred language (including need or want of an interpreter), transportation, health literacy, and social isolation.  This is the first time OASIS has directly focused on the patient’s transportation issues.  The item asks if the patient has had lack of transportation within the last 6 -12 months which has kept him/her from medical appointments, meetings, work, or retrieving things for daily living.  The results should be intriguing and useful for care planning purposes. Interestingly, the health literacy and social isolation items can be answered by the patient only.  Health literacy asks how often the patient has needed help with written materials from their doctor or pharmacy, while social isolation explores how often the patient feels lonely or isolated.  SDoH items are just six of the 27 new items being introduced by OASIS-E.  Agencies are wise to begin the process of staff education.  Change is a comin’.