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Health equity remains one of the most pressing challenges in the U.S. healthcare system. Despite growing awareness and investment in solutions, disparities in access, quality, and outcomes persist — especially among historically underserved populations. One of the most underutilized tools in the fight for equity? Better data sharing.
Interoperability in healthcare — the ability to access, exchange, and use health data across different systems and organizations — plays a critical role in addressing systemic inequities. Without it, gaps in data lead to gaps in care. With it, payers, providers, and community organizations can gain a more complete picture of patient needs and take targeted action to close those gaps.
Why Data Gaps Worsen Health Disparities
When data isn't shared — or isn't shareable — vulnerable populations fall through the cracks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, limitations in data sharing made it difficult to track infection rates, vaccine access, and treatment outcomes among specific racial and ethnic groups. As the National Academy of Medicine notes in their 2020 research, Health Data Sharing to Support Better Outcomes, the lack of standardized, shareable health data on race, ethnicity, disability, and social determinants of health significantly hinders our ability to understand and address disparities.
This challenge persists well beyond the pandemic. From maternal health to chronic disease management, inequities often stem from — or are exacerbated by — incomplete, siloed, or delayed data.
The Role of Interoperability in Equitable Care
For payers, interoperability in healthcare isn’t just a compliance mandate — it’s a strategic capability that can unlock more equitable, person-centered care models. Here’s how:
1. Identifying Disparities in Real Time
By integrating eligibility, claims, clinical, and social determinants of health (SDoH) data into a single, unified system, payers can analyze care gaps by population segment. Interoperability makes it possible to stratify risk and access issues not only by condition or region, but by race, income level, language preference, disability status, and more.
2. Designing Tailored Care Models
With better insights into who is underserved and why, payers can tailor care programs accordingly. For example, if data reveals that transportation is a common barrier to follow-up care in a specific zip code, a health plan might work with a community organization to offer non-emergency transport benefits.
3. Collaborating Across the Ecosystem
Equity-focused care requires coordination across payers, providers, digital health tools, and community partners. A modern data infrastructure makes it easier to share relevant member data — securely and in real time — enabling better transitions of care and more holistic support.
4. Supporting Proactive Interventions
Through AI and analytics layered on top of interoperable systems, payers can proactively identify members who are at risk of poor outcomes due to social or structural inequities — and intervene before problems escalate. This kind of anticipatory care is only possible when data is accurate, timely, and widely accessible.
Related: Beyond the Buzzword: Practical Steps for Achieving True Interoperability
Interoperability Is the Foundation for Equitable Innovation
Interoperability in healthcare is often discussed in the context of efficiency or compliance. But its potential to address health disparities is just as — if not more — powerful. Real progress toward health equity depends on reliable, real-time data that reflects the full context of members’ lives.
At Flume Health, we help payers build the interoperable infrastructure needed to support smarter, more equitable care delivery. Our elastic data integration solution enables seamless connectivity across the ecosystem, helping health plans activate data from every corner of their network — not just to improve operations, but to improve lives.
Ready to build more equitable health plans through better data? Let’s talk.
