If payers provided medically-tailored meals to patients with diet-sensitive conditions and activity limitations, they could save $13.6 billion annually, a new study found.
Medically-tailored meals are fully prepared, nutritious meals delivered to people’s homes and underscore the Food as Medicine trend. They are especially beneficial for those struggling with diet-related conditions like diabetes, heart failure and cancer.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
“In observational studies and pilot randomized clinical trials, patients receiving [medically-tailored meals] experienced better disease management and had fewer hospitalizations, emergency department admissions, nursing home visits, and lower health care expenditures compared with similar control patients,” the study said. The lead author was Kurt Hager of Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, relied on the 2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for its research. It analyzed how hospitalizations and healthcare expenditures changed with coverage of medically-tailored meals for over 6.3 million adults. The study sample consisted of adults with insurance and at least one diet-sensitive condition and one limitation to daily living.
It found that if these adults received medically-tailored meals, about 1.6 million hospitalizations would have been avoided, resulting in $38.7 billion saved in healthcare expenditures. Programs to provide these meals would have cost $24.8 billion, leading to $13.6 billion in net savings, according to the report.
If these meals were provided for 10 years, it would avoid almost 18.3 million hospitalizations and save $484.5 billion in healthcare expenditures. It would cost $298.7 billion to implement, creating $185.1 billion in net savings.
Medically-tailored meals would be most beneficial to older females: the average age of the sample group was 68.1 years and 63.4% were female. Additionally, 76.5% had Medicare and/or Medicaid.
These meals are not currently covered by Medicaid and Medicare, and bills introduced at the state and federal levels addressing this issue have not passed, according to the report.
“Given the limited coverage for medically-tailored meals nationally, this treatment is unavailable to most U.S. individuals who might benefit,” the researchers said.
The study comes after the White House held a conference on hunger, nutrition and health and announced it secured $8 billion from public and private organizations for the effort. Kaiser Permanente, an integrated health system, recently committed $50 million for food and nutrition security in alignment with the White House’s conference. Part of its investment includes shipping medically-tailored meals to patients who have been recently discharged from hospitals with certain diet-related conditions.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation is also investing $3.5 million for food and nutrition security. The investment includes offering medically-tailored meals, according to a White House fact sheet.
Photo: vgajic, Getty Images
