Conceptualizing Performance Measurement for Social Care Interventions: An Issue Brief for State Medicaid Agencies

This issue brief explores opportunities for state Medicaid agencies to implement performance measures with contracted care entities that could strengthen their growing interest in social care and highlights several barriers to those applications. Growing recognition that socioeconomic adversity impacts health outcomes has led the healthcare sector to support initiatives that address social determinants of health. Several social care use cases are relevant to Medicaid agencies: monitoring managed care organizations’ compliance with specific state or federal initiatives/requirements; advancing practice adoption by applying financial incentives, withholds, or public “scorecard” reporting; and informing future program development.