“There are 2 handfuls of major life moments that matter, where there’s an opportunity to make a difference. And women sit at the center of them. Like having a child, trying to conceive or when a family member is diagnosed with a disease, because you’re dealing with caregiving.” Sukanya Soderland, Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

How often do you interact with the healthcare system? Moms are the ‘Chief Medical Officers’ in most families. And family health is at the center of community health. But whether it’s care for our minds or the rest of our bodies, capacity constraints in an industry reeling from forced change, make the process harder.

Time to find, schedule, and then see experts — even when you can afford it — is like a part-time job. Being proactive about health is time consuming. So, many women, most of whom already drown in unpaid care responsibilities while managing their careers, disengage from it.

The Pandemic Heightened an Age-Old Problem

But there’s a price. Women are at greater risk for many stress-related conditions including anxiety, and depression. Yet habits to maintain health, like sleep and movement, rarely make it onto the to-do list. In our research study, over 3,500 parents mostly Moms (97%) have shared their stories since March of 2020. And 86%, the result of a steady decline since spring of 2020, cite doing ‘terribly’ or ‘not as well’ as usual at self-care in recent survey waves.

In the book Pay Up, Reshma Saujani shares a disturbing yet validating statistic. “…A 2015 survey conducted by Healthy Women and Working Mother magazine, revealed that Mothers prioritized the management of health care in the following order: 1. children, 2. pets, 3. elder relatives, 4. significant other or spouse and then 5. themselves.” Why do women still put their own wellbeing last?

But There is a Path to Better Outcomes

It’s complicated. Most Mothers are socialized to be self-sacrificing. And when you combine that with inequities that plague all women, and devastate women of color, it’s a recipe for diminishing health returns. Whether it’s fertility, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, or menopause. In an industry that traditionally relied on studies run by and for men, comprehensive care for women, seems elusive.

But after attending the Digital Health Innovation Conference this week and listening to leaders from the industry acknowledge the challenges. And share promising innovations, for everything from measurement, engagement, affordability and access; the future of women’s health, looks brighter.

Here’s what they shared:

It Involves Fixing, Not Just Tweaking, the Broken System

“…In March or April of 2020, I was delivering babies and all of our beds were full. There was no rapid testing in the hospital then, and we didn’t have enough PPE. One of your jobs as an on-call physician is to answer phone calls. So, people would call, sick and pregnant, wanting to know if they could come into the hospital. And somebody called me from one of the most impoverished parts of Boston and she was clearly sick but didn’t meet the triage criteria to come in. So, I gave her the advice I was supposed to, which was to self-isolate. And she couldn’t because she had kids and lived with her parents. I still don’t know what happened to her, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And it was very clear to me in that moment that health is not produced in the four walls of the hospital. It’s produced in people’s homes, communities and workplaces.” Dr. Neel Shah, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Maven Clinic

“We’re trying to find ways to become the best plan for women. There’s logic here, that  says, ‘if I want to help address needs from an equity, experience, quality, and affordability standpoint, I need get to the right folks. And women are typically key decision makers.” Sukanya Soderland, Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

From Experiences in Pregnancy

“Over the last several years we’ve fine-tuned the ability to look for pregnancies that don’t take the normal path of care to manage risk in real time. Because pregnancies have such dynamic changes, you have a short period of time to change the path for outcomes. Because we’re still seeing the numbers going up for preterm birth rates and unfortunately maternal morbidity and mortality.” Angela Glyder, RN, VP Clinical Operations, Lucina Analytics.

“We’re looking for ways we can improve quality and outcomes and ways in which we can address equity. Everybody’s talking about equity and maternal health is one of the areas we have zeroed in on as a major use case for improvement.” Sukanya Soderland, Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

“It becomes really difficult to go from a traditional payer model and add in some of these new family benefits. We also run into a tremendous problem for our Medicaid Moms. In that, many organizations would love to do more investing in this space. But the vast majority of the benefit goes to the baby and keeping the baby out of the NICU.” Nancy Brown, General Partner, Oak HC/FT

Through the Teen and Early Adult Years

“In the pandemic, my three nieces who were all between the ages of 18 and 23, faced a challenging time. And it was daunting to get the care they needed. And so many friends with kids turning 18 and heading off to school, were navigating these same incredible challenges. The more that I peeled back the onion, I realized the healthcare system isn’t meeting the needs of this generation.” Lori Evans Bernstein, CEO & Cofounder, Caraway Health

“…At eighteen, it’s a big transition point to navigate healthcare for the first time on your own. It’s an age when a lot of diagnoses, like chronic conditions for mental and reproductive health, show up. And if we’re not able to respond to questions or have a chat interaction or on-demand visit, on a 24/7 basis, members often turn to TikTok and Google and they don’t get good outcomes.” Lori Evans Bernstein, CEO & Cofounder, Caraway Health

And Menopause

“…We thought millennials would lead the revolution and honestly, they continue to! Because millennials are now going through menopause.” Nancy Brown, General Partner, Oak HC/FT

“From Employers there’s a growing desire to help with fertility benefits. In addition to mental health, gender affirming services and ways to help address menopause and perimenopause.” Sukanya Soderland, Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Establishing New Modes of Communication

“… We’re not doing our full duty unless we’re able to help (share the information) yet people don’t always think about their health plans as an option. And we don’t necessarily have the right to inform them. So, we’re looking at new channels to push out information within context. But we’re also starting to think about ways to get creative. Like, getting the women’s employee resource group for an employer involved. Because they have a different level of relationship and it’s founded by employees who care.” said Sukanya Soderland, Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

And Restoring Trust

“…(Generation Z) are deeply skeptical of the healthcare system. Whether it’s due to gender biases, LGBTQIA biases, or other health equity perspectives. And (establishing) that trust is a really important part of the puzzle for us.” Lori Evans Bernstein, CEO & Cofounder, Caraway Health

“What keeps me up at night fundamentally is the trustworthiness of our health system. …It’s either working or not working for people. When I think about all of the populations that don’t trust the health system, it’s because they’ve lived through the issues we deal with collectively on this panel. The intersection of gender inequity, racial inequity, geographic inequity and generational inequity. You know, the spiciest topics in America today. And you have to affirm people first. Sometimes that’s within their peer groups, or for us, boots on the ground working with faith-based communities.” Dr. Neel Shah, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Maven Clinic

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Notes are from attending the panel discussion, Women, Families and Health – Understanding the Market, It’s Impact and How You Measure Success, at the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit in Boston on June 7.

Many thanks to the talented Nancy Brown, General Partner, Oak HC/FT who moderated a thoughtful discussion with expert panelists: Lori Evans Bernstein, CEO & Cofounder, Caraway Health; Angela Glyder, RN, VP Clinical Operations, Lucina Analytics, Dr. Neel Shah, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Maven Clinic and Sukanya Soderland, Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts.