🍎 What are medically tailored meals?

Author

Daphnee Gipulan
April 25, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Let’s talk about food!

  • Eating healthier can *gasp- keep you out of the hospital?

  • What do the Rockefeller Foundation, Instacart, and Kaiser Permanente have in common?

  • Fresh produce grown in a hospital parking lot?

Salmon and quinoa dish

If the food we eat has an impact on our general health and well-being, can consuming a nutritious diet be considered a preventative measure? Is it not true that it is less expensive to prevent illness than to treat it afterward? If this is the case, why isn’t healthy food covered by health insurance plans?

These are the questions that keep me up at night.

What is MTM?

MTM or medically tailored meals are meals tailored to patients with health conditions that require specific diets, such as diabetes and heart disease.

In 2018, a pilot program was launched to determine whether tailored meals actually impact hospital, emergency department, and skilled nursing facility admissions.

During a four-year period, 1,413 eligible beneficiaries with congestive heart failure were served three tailored meals per day for 12 weeks.

What happened?

Data suggests that prescribed nutrition reduced emergency department visits, reduced readmissions to the hospital, and improved health outcomes and well-being.

This study suggests that implementing MTMs for patients with diet-sensitive conditions and activity limitations could help prevent 1.6 million hospitalizations and save insurers $13.6 billion annually.

Why should you care?

Although these programs are focused on patients with medical conditions, these studies show an effective strategy to decrease hospitalization and healthcare spending each year.

With long ED wait times and access issues in hospitals, any strategy to help ease the burden is not only a win for healthcare organizations but for patient experience as well.

The “Food is Medicine” initiative is gaining some momentum.

Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hosted the first-ever Food is Medicine Summit. The summit’s goal was to explore ways to promote good health and well-being through eating healthy food.

The event also highlighted partnerships between private and public organizations that support HHS’ goals to promote healthier living. These collaborations involve Instacart, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Feeding America.

  • Rockefeller Foundation committed $100 million toward this initiative

  • Instacart is also participating by increasing access to nutritious food and offering tools needed to support better health and well-being for individuals nationwide

  • Feeding America has also joined the effort to advance the Food is Medicine work

Kaiser Permanente has also joined the party, launching its Food is Medicine Center of Excellence to help its members across the country improve their health and well-being. By integrating evidence-based food and nutrition interventions into its care model, the center aims to tackle one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. for adults - diet-related diseases. This initiative is a fantastic resource for promoting better nutrition security and healthier lifestyles.

These initiatives are just beginning, but the research gives insight into the profound impact that proper nutrition can have on overall health and reduce the strain on the healthcare systems.

In other food-related news, this hospital has a farm in its parking lot?

AdventHealth Celebration innovates with an on-campus hydroponic farm inside a shipping container, providing abundant fresh produce. It supplies lettuce, herbs, and greens to the hospital’s cafe. Water-efficient and pesticide free, it boosts nutrition and community health.

Learn more about this ultimate vertical farm @ Freight Farms