Health disparities can impact your clients and their bottom line

Social determinants of health (SDoH) are social, economic and environmental conditions that can impact a person's health. Simply put, certain individuals experience barriers to care because of factors such as race, income, education level, gender identity and more. When people don’t have access to the resources they need, medical costs go up. That’s why addressing health disparities should be a priority when your clients create their health benefits strategy.

Why should you and your clients be aware of social determinants of health?

Cigna is working to identify health disparities and address social determinants of Health

We’ve instituted distress-screening tools and SDoH support. See the results:

ACHIEVING HEALTH EQUITY

Addressing health disparities can be an important consideration when creating an employer’s benefits strategy. When your clients recognize and work to reduce health disparities, it can lead to improved health equity for everyone. That could mean lower medical costs – and it can also help your clients build a healthier, more productive workforce. Making sure all employees have fair and equal access to health care resources puts businesses in a position to thrive.

By understanding the impact that health inequities may have on their workforce, you can work with your clients to build benefits strategies and solutions that can grow their businesses – and improve the well-being of their employees.

1. U.S. Census Bureau. (2017). 2017 National Population Projections Tables: Main Series. National Population Projections, Race by Hispanic Origin, 2017-2060. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/demo/popproj/2017-summary-tables.html 2. Turner, A. (2018, April 24). The Business Case for Racial Equity: A Strategy For Growth. W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Altarum. https://altarum.org/publications/the-business-case-for-racial-equity-a-strategy-for-growth 3. Prudential Insurance Company of America. (2019). Financial Fragility: How the Shutdown Affected the Household Finances of Federal Workers. [Study]. Financial Wellness Census. http://news.prudential.com//content/1209/files/financial fragility_how_the_shutdown_affected_the_household_finances_of_federal_workers_prudential.pdf 4. Semega J, Kollar M, Creamer J, and Mohanty A. (2019, September). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018. Current Population Reports. U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.pdf 5. Adler N, Glymour MM, Fielding, J. (2016, October 25). Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequalities. JAMA, 316(16):1641-1642. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2556011 6. Kaiser Permanente. (2019). Social Needs in America. [Survey]. Key Findings. https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/content/dam/internet/kp/comms/import/uploads/2019/06/KP-Social-Needs-Survey-Key-Findings.pdf 7. Cigna Case Management data based on customers identified September 2016-April 2018

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A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON HEALTH

The lack of health equity has proven to have a negative impact on health and wellness.

of Americans who struggle with SDoH face barriers when it comes to:

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THE CASE FOR EQUITY

Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever. See why this matters and explore the implications for your clients in terms of productivity and medical costs.

A CLEAR GAP EXISTS

In the United States, life expectancy for 40-year-old men in the bottom 1% of income distribution was 14.6 years less compared to men in the top 1%

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Economic impact

$6,840

in hospitalizations

14.7%

father with young daughter on his shoulders walking through a city block in the afternoon.

The lack of health equity accounts for approximately $93B in excess medical care costs and $42B in lost productivity per year as well as economic losses due to premature death

Changing population

52% of the U.S. population in 2050

It’s projected that people of color will account for

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a bar chart combined with an industrial gear

Affordability

African Americans (53%) and Hispanics (56%) were less likely to have emergency savings of more than $1,000, compared to Caucasians (64%)

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In 2018, the wealthiest 20% of households had an average income of $234,000, nearly 17x the average income ($14,000) of 20% of the least wealthy households

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For 40-year-old women, life expectancy dropped 10.1 years based on the same income gap

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among customers screened

REDUCTION

in costs