Payers Are Morally Responsible for Reimbursing Social Care by Medical Facilities: How to Make Value-Based Payments Work for Vulnerable Patients

Payers have shaped the healthcare system in the United States as fee-for-service has facilitated a care model that prioritizes volume over the sake of patient care. This worsens health disparities, especially in safety net facilities where ancillary social work is both necessary clinically and completely uncompensated. Using concepts from Iris Marion Young's Responsibility for Justice, it can be concluded that payers have a moral responsibility for reimbursing social care to address historical injustices. In this article, I describe the ethical hazards in paying for social care and propose a way to finance this through value-based payments.