Is whole health here to stay, or is it a shiny new object? Our guest today is Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, Chief Health Officer at Elevance Health. He falls soundly on the “here to stay” side of the ledger. He shares that whole health is not a side business for Elevance Health and its 47.5 million members. It is the core strategy for how the company will achieve value and affordability. And it’s also what patients want.

We dive into:

• Whether the US could get better outcomes at the same cost by redirecting resources from medical to social care.
• Why and how Elevance developed its Whole Health Index.
• The Elevance foundation’s three-part focus: maternal health, food as medicine and substance use disorders.
• The need for a new quality paradigm that measures whole health, not clinical care for individual body parts.

Shantanu calls for a deeper look at US health spending and outcomes compared to other countries:

“People often make this comparison, ‘well, our health outcomes are generally worse, we spend a lot of money in health care’. However, when you actually look at the total expense on health and social care across all these countries, it actually looks pretty similar. We are more on par with our peers, or they're more on par with us from a cost standpoint. But it is true - our health outcomes are worse. Well, why is that? Well, maybe it's because we've emphasized health care, and not care of a person's health, which means being inclusive of social and being upstream and working earlier in their life. Perhaps if we do this, we will right size the equation for our country.”

Relevant Links

More information on Elevance’s Whole Health Index [PDF]

Health Affairs article on “A Whole Health Population-Based Payment Approach”

Committing to Whole Health: A Conversation with Felicia Norwood & Dr. Shantanu Agrawal [VIDEO]

Distinguishing Health Equity and Health Care Equity: A Framework for Measurement

About Our Guest

Shantanu Agrawal, MD, MPhil is chief health officer at Elevance Health, where he oversees the enterprise whole health strategy, including medical policy and clinical quality, as well as the company’s industry-leading work to address health-related social needs and health equity. Passionate about improving health outcomes and reducing disparities, Agrawal draws on his clinical and business expertise to push for a more equitable health space for the people Elevance Health serves. He also leads Elevance Health’s community health strategy and the Elevance Health Foundation. Previously, Dr. Agrawal served as president and CEO of the National Quality Forum, deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and director of one of its largest centers, the Center for Program Integrity.

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