Utilizing food as part of a medical plan is coming into the limelight with the potential to help cut overall healthcare cost after California launched a $6 million pilot program behind the concept.

The project, which launched in April, aims to serve a thousand congestive heart failure patients across seven counties and is the first in the country to look at the implications of how delivering medically tailored meals can impact clinical outcomes and care costs.

“The ‘food is medicine’ concept is simple: If chronically ill people eat a nutritious diet, they’ll need fewer medications, emergency room visits and hospital readmissions,” the Pew Charitable Trusts explained in an article about the project.

The pilot will run for three years and provide patients with two delivered meals and snacks, as well as three counseling sessions with a registered dietitian over 12 weeks.

The ballooning costs of prescription medications, particularly for those with chronic conditions, is a focus for California that could be addressed in the pilot program.

The state puts a huge amount of money into health care, and one of the biggest costs is medication,” Assemblyman Phil Ting, a democrat and chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, told Pew. “So the hope is people will live longer and this project will also reduce the need for medication.”

Addressing nutrition could significantly impact healthcare costs and clinical outcomes of patients at risk. Poor diet was the No.1 risk factor in the U.S. for death in 2016, Pew cited. Among congestive heart failure patients, eating a diet low in salt is crucial. Supporters of the demonstration have long-term hopes that food delivery could be covered as an essential health benefit in the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal.

While California threw a large amount of resources to look at the concept, food as medicine runs a spectrum, from simply encouraging people to eat more healthfully and plant a garden, to delivering daily meals and snacks. The majority of food as medicine projects are funded through donations and grants.

However, it is also an area where Medicare Advantage plans are increasing benefits, as well. New supplemental benefits for MA plans in 2019 could potentially include food delivery services that could lower overall care costs for enrollees. These services could help keep aging adults in their homes longer, limiting the cost of institutional care, and potentially attract more enrollees. However, adding these benefits to MA plans will likely come with more scrutiny in the future.  

Elsewhere, food as medicine projects are aiming to help patients take their diets and health into their own hands through better education. Nutrition counseling and cooking classes can help people with certain conditions understand what foods are best for them and how to prepare them.

The Senate is also considering spending $20 million as part of the farm bill on a program called Harvest Health that provide fruits and vegetables and nutrition education to low-income patients with diet-related conditions through grants to nonprofits and states, Pew reported.

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