Population health & analytics · Social risk analytics
Socially Determined
Socially Determined makes SocialScape, analytics software that scores social risks such as food, housing, and transportation for people and neighborhoods and joins them to claims and clinical data.
Strong fit
- Health plans that want social risk scores for every member to target programs
- Plans and systems running food, transportation, or housing programs that need to choose who gets help
- Analytics teams that want social risk data joined to claims and clinical data
Weak fit
- Buyers who need a care management system to run outreach
- Small practices without analytics staff
- Organizations that want published, measured program results before they buy
Bottom line
Socially Determined is worth considering for health plans and health systems that want social risk data to guide which members get which programs. It is most useful to organizations that already run food, housing, or transportation programs and need a consistent way to decide who should be offered help.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
Socially Determined, based in Washington, DC, makes SocialScape, analytics software that scores social risks such as food insecurity, housing instability, and transportation barriers for individuals and neighborhoods. Trenor Williams, a family physician who earlier founded and sold the consulting firm Clinovations, co-founded the company in 2017. SocialScape draws on more than 800 data elements to score risk across seven areas of health-related social needs for more than 230 million US adults, down to 200 meters. Health plans and health systems join those scores to claims and clinical data to see how social risk drives use and cost, choose members for programs, and track results.
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield rolled out Socially Determined across its whole company in 2022 and found that members with diabetes who faced food insecurity and low health literacy cost more than $3,000 a year more than other diabetic members. AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia uses its data to run 12 social needs programs, and Priority Health in Michigan is also a customer. The company holds HITRUST certification and works with Mathematica on measuring return on investment. However, it publishes few measured results from the programs its data guides, which holds down its outcomes score.
Socially Determined's 6.9 overall is below the scores of its closest competitors in our reviews: Azara Healthcare (7.6), Cozeva (7.5), Persivia (7.4), and Certilytics (7.3). Certilytics is the closer comparison when a plan wants predictive analytics on cost and risk across its population, and Cozeva when the work centers on quality measures and risk adjustment with provider groups. Azara Healthcare fits community health centers that need population health and care gap reporting, and Persivia fits a buyer that wants population health analytics and care management on one system.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Azara Healthcare | 7.6 | 7.2 |
| Cozeva | 7.5 | 7.2 |
| Persivia | 7.4 | 7.1 |
| Certilytics | 7.3 | 7.0 |
| Socially Determined | 6.9 | 7.0 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Subscription contract quoted by Socially Determined. |
| What usually drives cost | Number of covered lives, which risk domains and data elements are licensed, and whether analytics services and program design are included. |
| What to ask before you buy | Whether pricing is per member or a flat fee, how often scores refresh, and how return on investment is measured, including through its Mathematica partnership. |
| Published pricing | Prices are not listed on the company's website. |
Prerequisites for purchase
| Need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What you need to get Socially Determined to function | |
| Analytics or population health lead | This person decides which programs the scores will support and is responsible for the results. |
| Member roster with addresses | Scores are attached to individual members and the places they live, so current addresses are needed. |
| Claims and clinical data feed | Joining the scores to claims and clinical data is what links social risk to cost and use. |
| Programs ready to act on scores | Scores help only when a food, housing, or transportation program is ready to act on them. |
| Baseline cost and use measures | Cost and use measures taken before launch are what later results are compared with. |
| What will maximize your value | |
| Start with one program such as food support | A single program gives a clear group of members to target and measure. |
| Compare outcomes against a matched group | A matched comparison group shows whether the program changed outcomes. |
| Share scores with care managers | Care managers can then use the scores when they plan outreach. |
| Deal-breakers | |
| You have no member programs ready to act on the scores. | |
| You have no claims or clinical data to join the scores to. | |
| You have no analytics staff to run the data work. | |
Value creation time frame
| # | Stage | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contract and data load | 1-3 months |
| 2 | First risk scores and use case | 1-2 months |
| 3 | More programs and a return study | 6-12 months |
Leadership
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.