When Kavitha Gnanasambandan, PhD., Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Blooming Health, thinks about her grandmother's final years, she doesn't think about hospital rooms or doctors' notes. She thinks about something quieter — and far more consequential.

"I realized 80% of the things that influenced her were non-medical and none of us were quite familiar with what was going on with her — especially in her case it was social isolation and loneliness."

That insight is shared by millions of Americans. It is one of the most well-documented and persistently underaddressed truths in modern healthcare. And yet our systems continue to be built almost entirely around the other 20%.

At Blooming Day Texas in February 2026, Gnanasambandan sat down with Michelle M. Alletto, MPA, Chief Program and Services Officer at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), for a candid conversation about building healthcare systems that address the full picture. What emerged was a roadmap and a call to action.

The Problem With Care Silos

Alletto leads five major divisions at HHSC — from state hospitals and behavioral health, to family health programs like WIC and early childhood intervention, to eligibility services for SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF. Her team is now doing something that had never been done before: mapping all providers across those programs together to find where they overlap and, crucially, where they don't.

"That is helping us figure out where we can make additional connections on the ground." explained Alletto.

Closing the Loop on Care Gaps

One of the most telling examples of integrated care is almost comically simple: a QR code. In HHSC's Thriving Texas Families program, paperwork now includes a QR code linking to a nearby WIC clinic — and the system tracks whether the referral was actually used.

"We will also be able to know if that individual who got that WIC referral actually did go and receive WIC services. And if not, we can look into why."

Gnanasambandan, whose platform reaches people via landline calls and text messages, validated the principle: "We don't judge any type of technology usage — technology that works, works. Internet access shouldn't be a reason why somebody doesn't get access to their benefits or services."

The First Year and Maternal Care

The non-medical factors shaping health begin before birth. Alletto pointed to two programs representing the state's most direct investment in early life: Nurse Family Partnership and early childhood intervention.

Nurse Family Partnership sends nurses directly into homes — not just for the child, but for the mother. "It focuses on care for not only the child... but also on mom and what she needs to be successful and healthy herself."

Early childhood intervention sends specialists into homes to work with families on developmental delays. "It also operates and functions as a health program really — when we're going in and looking at those developmental delays and seeing what resources we can connect that family to."

When asked what she's most excited about in 2026, Alletto's answer wasn't a new technology. It was agencies choosing to work together. "I've seen in Texas unprecedented partnership between our child protective services, juvenile justice, and health agency... Families' experiences with the state — our lines and divisions don't matter. What matters is that child is getting what they need when they need it."

Whole Picture Healthcare

If we keep building healthcare systems designed only for the 20% — the clinical, the acute, the measurable — we will keep failing the people who need us most. The social connections, housing stability, food security, and early childhood experiences are not a soft problem. They are the problem.

As Gnanasambandan put it: "It's always humbling to work with such partners and the level of dedication they provide in those moments."

If this conversation moved you, it’s because it reflects something deeper than policy or programs — it reflects a shift in how we think about care.

Blooming Day events bring together the people doing this work in real time. State leaders, community organizations, healthcare innovators, and social care advocates come together in-person for one day to move beyond theory and into action. These gatherings are where partnerships are formed, silos are challenged, and practical solutions to non-medical drivers of health take shape.

If you care about building systems that see the whole person — not just the chart — Blooming Day is where those conversations happen.

Learn more about upcoming Blooming Day events and join us in reshaping what healthcare can be.