Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare is leading a new collaboration in Ogden and St. George, Utah, called the Utah Alliance for the Determinants of Health that will seek ways of promoting health, improving access to care and decreasing healthcare costs, the health system announced June 27.
Over three years, Intermountain will invest $12 million to sustain the project's demonstration programs. Qualifying patients, regardless of their healthcare providers, can participate in Alliance services.
City, county and state government agencies, as well as other community-based organizations, will also take part in the Alliance, which will focus on the non-medical factors that affect health known as the social determinants of health. Those factors include housing instability, utility needs, food insecurity, interpersonal violence and transportation.
"We are very excited to work with our local and statewide partners in this innovative Alliance," Mikelle Moore, senior vice president of community health at Intermountain, said in a news release. "By working together in new ways to promote health, we expect to make a real difference in the lives of the people in these programs. The Alliance will lead to healthier communities and will also have a positive impact in slowing the rise of healthcare costs."