IBX, Signify Health Launch SDOH, In-Home Health Network

Independence Blue Cross, the Blues plan based in Philadelphia, and Signify Health announced today that they are launching a network of community-based providers that will combine management of the social determinants of health with in-home health visits.

Independence Blue Cross Registered Nurse Health Coaches, Signify Health social care coordinators, and local community-based organizations are now all connected via the CommunityLink network and are able to coordinate on behalf of Independence Medicare Advantage members and other people throughout the region for non-medical services, according to the press release making in the announcement. Starting in 2021, clinicians and other health care providers will be able to use CommunityLink to refer patients as well.

Independence and Signify Health are now among the first in the nation to have designed a community-based network that combines management of social determinants of health with in-home health visits, according to the press release.

“Creating a more equitable health care system includes acknowledging that health not only happens in the doctor’s office, but in our members’ homes and communities. That is why we are so pleased to work with Signify Health on developing CommunityLink,” Daniel J. Hilferty, Independence Blue Cross President and CEO, was quoted as saying in the press release. “Our goal is to create the opportunity for more healthy, happy days in the home by providing health care and social support services wherever and whenever they’re needed most,” said Kyle Armbrester, CEO of Signify Health.

So far, the CommunityLink network consists of the following organizations: Project HOME (Helen Brown Community Center, Honickman Learning Center and Stephen Klein Wellness Center),Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA), Penn Asian Senior Services (PASSi),Philadelphia Food Trust, Legal Clinic for the Disabled, Well Spouse and Greater Philadelphia YMCA. More organizations will join the network in the coming months, the press release said.