On April 5, 2022, the Physicians Foundation released Part One of Three: 2022 Survey of America’s Physicians, which examined the impact of social drivers of health (SDOH) on physician practice, physician wellbeing, and their patients, in addition to possible solutions to address SDOH. The survey was conducted from February 3, 2022, through February 11, 2022, and is comprised of 1,502 responses.
Patients and SDOH
According to the survey, nearly all physicians indicated their patients’ health outcomes are affected by one or more SDOH: 23% of respondents indicated their entire patient population is affected, 54% reported that many of their patients are affected, 18% reported that some of their patients are affected, and 5% reported few of their patients are affected. Only 1% of respondents indicated that none of their patients’ health outcomes are affected by at least one SDOH. The most common SDOH experienced by the respondent physicians’ patients were financial instability (34%) and transportation problems (24%).
Unfortunately, 61% of respondents reported feeling that they have little to no time and ability to effective address their patients’ SDOH, but 87% noted that they wish to have greater time and ability in the future. The overwhelming majority of physicians identified “limited time during patient visits” and “insufficient workforce to navigate patients to community SDOH resources” as the greatest challenges impacting their ability and time to address SDOH. Additional top challenges included: community resources not available (either inadequate or difficult to access), inadequate information about availability/access to community resources, lack of reimbursement for screening for or addressing SDOH, and existing payer reporting requirements taking time away from being able to address patients’ SDOH.
Physician Mental Health/Well Being
SDOH also have an impact on physician mental health, with 83% of respondents stating their belief that addressing patients’ SDOH contributes to burnout rates and 63% of respondents reporting feelings of burnout when trying to address their patients’ SDOH.
More than half of responding physicians reported that SDOH challenges cause them stress or frustration on a daily or weekly basis. Some of the reasons for that stress and frustration include: limited time during patient visit to discuss SDOH, insufficient workforce to navigate patients to community resources that address SDOH, existing payer reporting requirements that take time away from being able to address patients’ SDOH, lack of reimbursement for screening for or addressing SDOH, and a lack of community resources/lack of access to community resources.
What to Do About It
A staggering 80% of responding physicians believe that the United States will be unable to improve health outcomes or reduce health care costs without addressing SDOH. Roughly 80% of physicians support the following strategies to address patients’ SDOH: investment in community capacity to address patients’ SDOH, investment in technological and human capacity to connect patients with community resources they need to be healthy, screening of patients to identify social needs, significantly reduce existing payer reporting requirements and other administrative burdens to provide additional time to address SDOH, and create financial incentives for physician-directed efforts to address SDOH.
Physicians also identified a handful of policy steps to improve health outcomes and ensure high-quality and cost-efficient care, such as: reimbursing physician-directed efforts to address SDOH, incentivizing payors to invest in the availability and quality of community resources to address SDOH, providing greater flexibility for Medicare Advantage to reimburse for addressing SDOH, and integrating SDOH into payment policy.