One of the nation’s largest Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans is more than doubling its investments in housing and related support to the homeless and those who cannot afford rent as health insurers intensify their efforts to address social determinants of health.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is investing $1 million in “housing and wraparound support services for members of Chicago’s homeless community to improve their health and reduce healthcare costs,” the plan, which is a subsidiary of Health Care Service Corp., the nation’s four largest health insurance company, said.
Though the investment is a fraction of what other health insurers like UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health’s Aetna health plan subsidiary and Anthem have made in recent years, the Illinois Blue Cross investment shows how housing is turning into a health insurer strategy to address social determinants of health.
“We know that factors outside the scope of healthcare — such as lack of access to housing, food and transportation — play a major role in a person’s ability to be healthy,” Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC) president Maurice Smith said in a statement. “They may also add to medical costs.”
Health insurers are investing in a variety of initiatives whether they be paying rent for Medicaid patients enrolled in their private health plans or partnering with a local health system to investigate the living conditions of health plan enrollees to make sure they have clean curtains free of harmful mold that could be deadly to a child with severe asthma.
The new housing strategies being launched by practically every health insurance company are also designed to increase profits as insurers figure a monthly rent payment is cheaper that a multi-day state in a hospital for a homeless man stricken with severe pneumonia or linking someone to a shelter where they can be screened for disease could prevent a costly illness down the road.
Already, UnitedHealth has invested more than $350 million since 2011 in affordable housing in more than a dozen states. And Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer with Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states, has committed more than $380 million to affordable housing over the last decade. And other insurers, such as Humana, are investing and partnering in certain communities as part of a “Bold Goal Initiative” that targets a variety of social determinants.
Executives at Illinois Blue Cross parent, Health Care Service Corp., say the insurer has invested several million dollars in housing in recent years in a five-state region. Health Care Service owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Montana.
In the case of Illinois Blue Cross, the health plan said it is among the initial private funders in Chicago’s Flexible Housing pool, a partnership between government and the private sector to better coordinate help for the city’s homeless.
“These social determinants of health are the reason we are developing and implementing strategies for health equity within the health care delivery system,” HCSC’s Smith said. “One solution is housing to improve health outcomes.”
The $1 million investment comes on top of $445,000 Illinois Blue Cross has invested since 2017 in other programs designed to support access to housing and improve health outcomes, the insurer said. The latest investment will help Chicago’s Flexible Housing Pool “secure quality, safe, affordable housing for people who are experiencing homelessness and have been frequent users of hospital emergency rooms and other crisis response systems.” The housing money is linked to case management and social services to increase the odds there will be better health outcomes for these homeless Chicagoans.
“The average life expectancy among America’s homeless is between 42 and 52 years old, much lower than the life expectancy for the general population at 78 years,” Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois chief medical officer Dr. Derek Robinson said. “One estimate is that more than 80 percent of all homeless people have at least one chronic health condition. By taking away the obstacle of homelessness, we can empower individuals to better manage their medical conditions and avoid complex problems like kidney failure, heart attack, stroke or blindness.”
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