PolicyLab

With recognition of the inextricable links between the social determinants of health, health status, and health disparities, efforts led by the policy, payer, and healthcare sectors to address food insecurity and other unmet social needs have gained momentum in recent years. Social risk screening has served as the linchpin of these initiatives, functioning as the central mechanism for eliciting social risk information and identifying appropriate referrals for patients and families. This was underscored by the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health held in several decades, convened by the Biden-Harris Administration in September 2022. Among the strategies presented for eradicating hunger in the United States by 2030, the American Academy of Pediatrics and an anti-hunger nonprofit, Share Our Strength, announced a partnership to train pediatricians in food insecurity screening and referrals. Furthermore, state Medicaid agencies have begun to reimburse for social risk screening results documented in the medical record.However, many unanswered questions remain regarding how to integrate social and pediatric medical care in a way that centers the patient-family perspective.