CMS expands social determinants of health screening to outpatient settings

Editor's Note

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is expanding its social determinants of health (SDoH) initiatives to include outpatient settings, starting with voluntary reporting in 2025 and moving to mandatory reporting in 2026, MedLearn Publishing August 26 reports. This expansion aims to address gaps in care by incorporating SDoH screenings into Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR), Rural Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting (REHQR), and Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) programs.

CMS stated it recognizes that patients often interact with the healthcare system in a fragmented way, potentially missing opportunities to identify and address social risk factors. The expanded SDoH screenings will focus on five key areas:

• food insecurity
• housing instability
• transportation
• utility challenges
• interpersonal safety.

The data collected will help healthcare providers better understand the prevalence of the above risks and provide necessary referrals and support to address them.

Challenges in implementing these screenings include determining who will follow up on positive results and how to integrate the screenings into existing processes across various care settings. CMS suggests facilities start planning now, including integrating questions into patient portals and developing a triage plan for addressing positive screenings.