Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) versus Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). SDOH are broader social conditions, HRSN are more immediate individual or family needs impacted by those conditions.
The term "Health-Related Social Needs" is sometimes used interchangeably with the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), but an important distinction can be made. HRSN refers to the social and economic needs that individuals experience that affect their ability to maintain their health and well-being. They include things such as housing instability, housing quality, food insecurity, employment, personal safety, lack of transportation and affordable utilities, and more. SDOH, on the other hand, refers to the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age that are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources and impacted by factors such as institutional bias, discrimination, racism, and more. In a way, disparities in HRSN can be understood as a result of the Social Determinants of Health. Addressing the conditions in which people live and their underlying factors is often out of scope for primary care practices. However, clinics can take steps to address the resulting health-related social needs through understanding which ones their unique patients face, referring them to local community services, partnering with community-based organizations, or coming up with other creative interventions.
Banner Health Plans' (BHP) Health Equity Committee is collaborating closely with key Banner Health delivery stakeholders and other community-based partners to help drive utilization of Z codes for BHP members. BHP will look at different interventions such as increasing provider awareness, establishing performance and value-based agreements and educating coding professional. Z code categories Z55-Z65 are specifically used to document HRSN data (e.g., issues related to education, literacy, employment, housing, etc.) so the information can be used to can enhance quality improvement, track factors that influence health, and offer insight into existing health inequities.