Two things push Medicaid to the front of every equity conversation. First, its scale and focus. Second, its bold moves to improve equity through coverage expansions and addressing social drivers of health. Claudia chats with Dr. Aditi Mallick about Medicaid’s three-part agenda to improve equity, implement whole person care and expand coverage. Dr. Mallick — the Chief Medical Officer for Medicaid & CHIP at CMS — shares the deeply personal experience that fuels her push for health equity and access to care for all Americans. 

We discuss: 

• Why addressing social needs is key to achieving Medicaid’s agenda

• Thinking in new ways about maternal and infant health

• Two perennial challenges: workforce and data sharing 

•  Where to draw the line on what Medicaid should fund    

Aditi reminds us that pure technology plays will never work in this space:

“I think there is a tremendous role for technology here and tech enablement here when done thoughtfully. I think a pure technology business in this space that doesn't have humans or service layered on top of it will not work, frankly, because so much of the implementation success around health related social needs will be predicated on being able to bring together people from a community setting and trusted voices… as opposed to building and throwing something at the community.”We focus on understanding people's priorities first, which helps us develop and maintain their trust. One of the things we've learned is that people are not quality measures; we need to prioritize them first. By figuring out what's important in their lives, we can truly make them feel heard and understood.”