Patient-First Approach: Initial Step in Addressing Nation’s Health Inequities
Removing barriers to reach Health equity.
Health equity is achieved when everyone has a reasonable opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing barriers to access medications and care, such as the consequences of poverty and discrimination, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments and health care. Health equities are reflected in differences in length of life, quality of life, rates of disease, disability and death, severity of disease and access to treatment.
Health inequity has led to a disproportionate impact on patients of color with a chronic or rare disorder, including barriers to access for early and accurate diagnosis, affordable health care, referrals to specialists, provision of educational and support services and participation in clinical trials.
Focus on Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)
Recent studies estimate that social determinants, such as living and working environments, conditions in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age can be responsible for up 80-90% of a health outcome. Health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease and obesity are all linked to environments, cultures and behaviors that impact individuals, creating a complex web of challenges that often lead to eroding health, limited functionality and avoidable health costs.
Improving the quality of life for patients with of rare and chronic diseases will require payers and providers to investigate the social determinants – including non-clinical issues – that are at the root of chronic disease.
With effective management of the complications of chronic illness and rare disease, AscellaHealth’s innovative Specialty Pharmacy programs strive to mitigate unnecessary costs – via monitoring adherence, providing dosing accuracy, preventing avoidable ER visits and most importantly, enhancing the quality of life for rare disease patients.
To learn more, visit www.AscellaHealth.com