Treat Social Needs Like Patient Care: Health Industry Group CEO

Health insurers should be allowed to change how they account for their spending on customers’ social needs so that it counts as patient care, the head of a major health insurance trade association said Tuesday.

Currently these expenses are treated as administrative costs under regulations that require insurers to spend at least 80% of premiums on medical claims or quality improvements. The requirement applies to individual market plans like Obamacare, as well as private Medicare and Medicaid plans.

Treating coverage of transportation to doctor visits or access to healthy food as quality improvements would mean insurers could spend more money ...