More Resources
Check out these resources to learn more about the importance of whole health and how we're making it easier for care providers to deliver quality outcomes.
This NEJM Catalyst article covers the methodology, validity, and results of the Whole Health Index, a tool developed by Elevance Health to establish a common metric around whole-person health. It is useful not only to measure and track health but also to guide health improvements at an individual and population level.
The All of Us Research Program is an effort to establish a large health database from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal is to gather health data from at least one million people in the United States to accelerate research to improve health. Elevance Health is one of the organizations partnering with NIH to help make this groundbreaking national research platform possible.
This report from the Urban Institute, American Benefits Council, and the Deloitte Health Equity Institute covers barriers to collecting race and ethnicity data. It also contains recommendations to improve collection efforts, and in turn, advance health equity. The report, funded by Elevance Health, is based on literature reviews, expert interviews, and surveys from healthcare stakeholders.
The My Diverse Patients website contains a growing catalog of continuing medical education trainings to help care providers support the needs of diverse patients. The website is a unique collaboration between Elevance Health and Training Systems Design, LLC. Content is available at no charge to care providers, regardless of whether they participate in an Elevance Health-affiliated health plan network.
Elevance Health took the World Economic Forum's Zero Health Gaps Pledge in 2022, committing to embed health equity into the core of our strategies, operations, and investments. As part of the pledge, we agreed to heightened health equity reporting requirements and participation in a global community of practice with other organizations, all aimed at creating a more equitable future.
Commercially insured adults comprise a majority of health plan consumers but are least likely to be surveyed about their social needs. This study, originally published in Preventive Medicine Reports, aims to assess the prevalence of health-related social needs (HRSNs) among commercially insured adults, examining how HRSNs relate to that population's health outcomes and spending.
Using data from Carelon's Healthcare Integrated Research Database, this study examines individual- and area-level socioeconomic characteristics across Commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid consumers in our affiliated health plans. It showcases our ability to integrate those characteristics with claims data, enabling research focused on social drivers of health.
This Health Affairs article, authored by Elevance Health's Sai Ma, Qi Zhou, MD, and Shantanu Agrawal, MD, focuses on the "quality measurement dilemma" experienced by the healthcare industry as value-based purchasing programs become more widespread.
This report compares outcomes for individuals enrolled in managed care plans — specifically Medicare Advantage plans and Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans — with those enrolled in traditional Medicare. It was authored by Elevance Health's Public Policy Institute, in conjunction with Health Management Associates and Berkeley Research Group.
Prepared by Elevance Health's Public Policy Institute, this analysis describes Medicare Advantage plan enrollees' use of supplemental benefits overall and by demographic characteristics. The authors examined the use of any supplemental benefit, as well as the use of three commonly offered benefits uniquely designed to address health-related social needs: transportation, over-the-counter medication and health supply allowances, and grocery cards.
In this brief, Elevance Health's Public Policy Institute provides an example of how UniCare Health Plan of West Virginia, an Elevance Health-affiliated Medicaid plan, leveraged state-approved contract changes to maximize its investments in social drivers of health.
As demonstrated in this analysis, when obstetric care providers access specialized health plan resources and participate in quality improvement initiatives through value-based care arrangements, there are favorable impacts across prenatal care and delivery, infant outcomes, access to care, and costs. This report was prepared by Elevance Health's Public Policy Institute.
This report highlights Elevance Health programs that are improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities. It outlines how Medicaid plans have incorporated an equity-centered approach and community partnerships into their perinatal and child health programs.
This implicit bias training, offered by March of Dimes in partnership with our affiliated health plans, equips care providers with resources and insights to help them identify and alleviate implicit bias. The goal is to improve the patient experience and quality of care for pregnant women and their babies.
The 2023 NCQA Innovation Awards recognized organizations for implementing leading-edge strategies that improve both quality and value. It also celebrated those supporting delivery system redesign and patient engagement initiatives designed to help drive better integration across the delivery system and support person-centered care. Elevance Health was recognized for "Specialty Provider Enablement Partnered with Value-Based Care Solutions Achieve Better Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes."
This pilot study, published in Maternal Child Health, demonstrates that a self-care mobile tool has the potential to address significant health outcomes related to maternal morbidity and mortality. The goal of the project highlighted in the study was to evaluate a web-based program designed to improve the health of postpartum Black women, who face vast disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity.
This qualitative study highlights the experiences of pregnant and postpartum Black women in the United States. It covers beliefs about postpartum motherhood, experiences during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and recommendations for a web-based mobile tool. The findings, published in Maternal Child Health, aim to guide healthcare professionals and to inform the development of supplemental nonclinical, digital resources to fill gaps in care.
Carelon Research participated in the Evidence DEFINED workgroup, a collection of experts in the digital health field and medical evidence evaluation, along with the Digital Medicine Society, to develop a rigorous and rapid framework to assess digital health interventions. The resulting publication of the framework provides a streamlined process for evaluation of digital health products.
This presentation details how Elevance Health and other companies have linked administrative data to vaccine data at state vaccine registration (immunization information system data). It also outlines why this data is important for vaccine safety surveillance.
WKRC, Local 12, in Cincinnati, Ohio, featured one of our consumers and her nurse care manager to highlight how they use the resources available to better manage Crohn's disease through the Elevance Health Concierge Care program.
The Concierge Care program won a platinum 2022 eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Care/Disease Management. Concierge Care works in a variety of ways to provide patient-centered care and help people manage their health conditions.
This report from Elevance Health's Public Policy Institute covers the critical role pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) play in consumers' health and the larger healthcare system. PBMs can broaden access to safe and effective medications for individuals, while simultaneously reducing drug spending and costs.
Value-based partnerships between PBMs and independent community pharmacies can improve outcomes for health plan consumers with complex or chronic conditions, according to this report from Elevance Health's Public Policy Institute. It covers early results from Elevance Health's partnership with a performance-based network of community pharmacies.
This article from the Journal of Community Medicine & Public Health outlines our subsidiary Carelon Behavioral Health's suicide prevention program, as well as our dedication to decreasing suicide rates. It highlights promising results from Carelon Behavioral Health's comprehensive case management program.
The Lived Experience of Positive Airway Pressure Therapy in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea...
Although treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy is effective, adherence is often poor. Understanding the patient perspective is needed to inform adherence-promoting interventions. This qualitative study assessed the experiences, preferences, facilitators, and barriers surrounding PAP therapy for the management of OSA in patients from adolescence to older adulthood.
This study — conducted in collaboration with CarelonRx and published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy — examines the use of medication and psychotherapy to treat depression. It suggests patients treated with medication and psychotherapy are more likely to see improvement in their depression symptoms, while those receiving neither yield the highest healthcare costs.
This Elevance Health Public Policy Institute paper outlines how pandemic restrictions made it harder for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) to receive treatment and support services. At the same time, it highlights how the pandemic led to important adaptations for OUD, such as the expansion of virtual services, which could have a lasting impact.
Social isolation and loneliness are often connected to other social drivers of health, such as reliable and accessible transportation, community inclusion, and availability of nutritious food. This Public Policy Institute brief details how Elevance Health's Member Connect program has improved the well-being of program participants.
This study by Carelon Research showed that community health worker intervention can improve access to outpatient care for Medicaid consumers. The program highlighted in the study involved phone and face-to-face visits from community health workers who provided support, empowerment, and education to consumers, while identifying and addressing health and social issues.
Medicaid managed care plans cover over 40% of births in the U.S., but Medicaid-enrolled pregnant women are more likely to delay prenatal care until the second trimester than those with Commercial health insurance. This analysis of birth outcomes and costs suggests that helping eligible individuals enroll in a Medicaid managed care plan in their first trimester of pregnancy could help reduce NICU stays and overall infant birth costs.
Published in March 2023, this executive summary provides an overview of our 2022 Advancing Health Together: Progress Report. It summarizes the work we did with care providers and other partners in 2022 to go beyond the contract and make a real impact on health — together.