More states are using Medicaid to develop food-as-medicine initiatives, part of the strategy released by the Biden administration’s White House Conference on Hunger.

Source: https://civileats.com/2022/12/15/medicaid-is-a-new-tool-to-expand-healthy-food-access/

At the clinics run by Community Care Cooperative in Massachusetts, doctors and nurses can make a special kind of referral not often found in healthcare: When patients are struggling to manage an illness like diabetes because they lack the resources to prepare healthy meals, medical professionals can refer them to Project Bread, a local food-assistance organization. Then, one of 12 coordinators at the nonprofit will call the patient.

“We try to understand the range of barriers that are making it difficult for them to purchase, prepare, or store different, healthy foods,” explained Jennifer Obadia, Project Bread’s senior director of health care partnerships. Once the coordinators get a picture of an individual’s situation, they can send grocery store gift-cards and kitchen supplies or sign the patient up for cooking classes or nutrition counseling. They can even refer them to a service that will deliver “medically tailored meals.” Every three months, they check in on the patient.

In its first two years, the program served 5,000 patients, and a recent evaluation found that 25 percent were no longer food insecure after participating for six months.

Massachusetts was able to use a Medicaid waiver approved by the federal government to implement and pay for the program. Over the past few years, it was one of the only states using Medicaid—the federal healthcare plan for low-income Americans—to develop food-as-medicine initiatives.

That’s about to change. In addition to approving a continuation and expansion of Massachusetts’ program, this fall, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved similar projects in Oregon and Arkansas, and more state-wide projects are still to come.

The movement is a direct result of the recent White House Conference on Hunger, Health, and Nutrition, during which the Biden administration released a National Strategy to end hunger and increase healthy eating. Within the goal of “integrat[ing] nutrition and health,” the administration identified expanding Medicaid participants’ access to food-as-medicine interventions as a key approach. And while some components require Congressional action to move forward and will likely take many years to roll out, CMS is moving with surprising speed to approve state Medicaid waivers that make progress toward that goal.

“I think we’re on the precipice of some real systemic change when it comes to the healthcare system. It just makes sense to be making the connection between food and healthcare.”

And it’s not just CMS that’s moving relatively quickly: In October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) held its first Nutrition Security and Healthcare Summit. A month later, the agency announced a $59 million investment that includes funding for produce prescriptions, where physicians can offer patients coupons for free fruits and vegetables to boost nutrients in their diet. Also in November, as part of partnership agreements made at the conference, Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign and the American Academy of Pediatrics announced a project to improve how, and how often, pediatricians screen for food insecurity.

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