Recently released results from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) funded Accountable Health Communities project shed light on the social challenges during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. CMS beneficiaries whose basic needs (housing, food, transportation, utilities and interpersonal safety) were addressed spent less on health care compared to those who did not receive assistance. 

In Oregon, ORPRN conducted a key analysis that revealed how much the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home order impacted some of Oregon’s most vulnerable citizens. The paper, which appears in the November 2024 issue of Annals of Family Medicine reports that food, housing, and interpersonal safety needs increased by an aggregate of more than 17 percent during the spring 2020 lockdown and did not significantly decline in the subsequent 2 years. 

Authored by Jean Hiebert Larson, Anna L. Steeves-Reece, Zoe Major-McDowall, Bruce Goldberg, and Anne King, “Health-Related Social Needs Following Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Oregon” arose out of years of careful work by ORPRN staffers and clinic partners, who administered a screening tool to Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries in 50 partner clinic sites that covered 27 of Oregon’s 36 counties. More than 21,000 people participated in screening between May of 2019 and December of 2021. 

Read more about the article on OHSU Now. The study has led to ongoing work at ORPRN to support the development of statewide policy to address social needs. Learn more about this work on ORPRN’s website.