Hello, I’m Dennis Vaughan, CEO of State Government Solutions at Optum, and I want you to join me in imaging a new way to make better health possible for more people. Specifically, people who are served by Medicaid and Human Services programs. We’re talking about those who are often the most vulnerable. Parents and children who are on a limited income. People who are living with intellectual and physical disabilities. Individuals who are in nursing homes or rely on in-home care.

We know that health goes well beyond the care you get from a nurse or doctor. It includes social determinants like access to food, transportation, education, employment and affordable housing. And it’s low-income, vulnerable populations whose health is often most negatively impacted by social determinants.

While government safety net programs do support many aspects of these needs, increasingly - state Medicaid programs are working to more efficiently address them through coordinated models informed by complete, timely, and relevant data.

At Optum, we enthusiastically support states in this effort. We provide the technology and expertise that states need to implement the strategies to improve overall health outcomes.

By integrating programs and systems and linking all of the supporting data, public agencies can better determine how effective their services are in producing the intended effect and prioritize intervention based on each person’s individual needs.

Today, we’re providing care coordination and integrated care teams to help state Medicaid, Health and Human services programs identify members who are priority candidates for disease-focused care management. Working closely with state case managers, we help assess needs, connect people with critical community supports, such as food and transportation, as well as help determine in-home care and behavioral health needs to enable people to continue living at their own home and improve their quality of life.

When state’s leverage enabling technology and advanced analytics to link disparate data sources, they get a 360-degree view of an individual. This is truly significant because when states understand and provide support for the whole person, entire communities benefit.

Because this modern technology is flexible, states can quickly pivot to changing circumstances to help people improve quality of life and health outcomes.

And with a goal in 2021 to be interoperable across systems, states will soon provide patients with more comprehensive access to their own data so they can make more informed health decisions.

States are starting to build a culture of analytics. And this is allowing states to link all of their data, across programs and agencies, so they can determine how effective their services are, see the needs of the whole person, and then address those priority needs. 

Together, we can modernize systems to support all aspects of what makes us uniquely human, including physical, mental and social needs, in order to improve the quality of health for the people in our communities.