UnitedHealthcare is offering $11.1 million in grants to 66 nonprofits in 12 states, the well being insurer introduced Tuesday. The grants will assist these battling meals insecurity, social isolation, behavioral well being points and different social determinants of well being.
The grants are a part of Empowering Well being, a program launched in 2018 that goals to enhance entry to care and deal with social determinants of well being. Up to now, UnitedHealthcare has invested a complete of $62 million in 30 states and the District of Columbia by this system.
The latest spherical of grants will go towards organizations in Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington. Recipients embody:
- Massachusetts-based Group Servings, which acquired $300,000 to create a program to assist sufferers transition off of a medically-tailored meals program.
- Atlanta, Georgia-based CHRIS 180, which acquired $300,000 for a group well being employee program supporting trauma-informed psychological well being social providers for low-income residents of the westside of Atlanta.
- Pierce County, Washington-based Consejo Counseling and Referral Service, which acquired $200,000 for culturally related wellness programming for youth and households.
- Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota-based Trellis, which acquired $200,000 to assist cut back loneliness for these with reminiscence loss and their caregivers.
- Syracuse, New York-based The Upstate Basis, which acquired $165,000 for Upstate Medical College’s She/We Matter Program, an outreach program that goals to make well being screenings extra accessible for low-income Black and Latinx girls.
- Rhode Island-based The Windfall Middle, which acquired $65,000 to enhance group psychological well being providers for kids.
To decide on recipients of the grants, UnitedHealthcare labored with its native well being plans to grasp the wants of their respective areas, stated Olivia Jefferson, vp of social accountability of the insurer.
“Healthcare is so native,” Jefferson stated in an interview. “It’s necessary for us to not assume that we all know all the pieces and that we all know precisely what’s taking place in each state. … We work actually intently with our native well being plans to higher perceive what’s taking place within the panorama after which we establish with their assist, nonprofit organizations in that specific market, who we all know have a historical past of addressing social determinants of well being inside that market.”
UnitedHealthcare has quarterly check-ins with their companions to grasp how the applications are performing and if sure metrics are being met.
About 90% of well being outcomes are on account of social, behavioral and financial components. UnitedHealthcare goals to deal with this challenge by its funding.
“As one of many largest healthcare corporations, we simply really feel an enormous accountability to not solely maintain our members, but in addition the oldsters who proceed to be underserved and uninsured,” Jefferson stated.
She added that the payer particularly hopes to have an effect on behavioral well being entry.
“We all know that the pandemic has actually exacerbated behavioral well being, significantly for our younger folks,” Jefferson said. “Once you take a look at plenty of the completely different grants that we’ve funded, significantly this yr, we’ve actually doubled down on making an attempt to work with organizations which might be addressing the behavioral well being wants of the communities that actually are underserved, and in addition actually fascinated about how we be certain that behavioral well being is culturally delicate and applicable.”
Picture: StockFinland, Getty Photographs
