Some of the things that make Food is Medicine attractive to community-based organizations also make it attractive to for-profit companies. Both, for example, would like to use the insurance reimbursements they get for providing healthy food to help sustain their operations. That tension has helped propel an action plan designed…
Posts published in “Food is Medicine”
Reinvestment Partners has been on a mission to make its produce-prescription program a standard healthcare service that can be reimbursed by insurers. The results of its latest clinical trial move it one step closer to that goal, with some caveats. The Durham, N.C.-based nonprofit announced in November that a randomized…
It took several months to get going, but Feeding Westchester is now humming along with an initiative that uses Medicaid dollars to deliver nutritious food to the doors of eligible residents. Every Wednesday morning, the Elmsford, N.Y.-based food bank oversees the distribution of hundreds of boxes of medically tailored food…
Like many hunger relief organizations, God’s Love We Deliver recently put language at the top of its website to help individuals navigate the new SNAP restrictions. It also highlighted a less-common avenue of help – food assistance through Medicaid. Individuals can now go to a page on GLWD’s site where…
A Food is Medicine program at Albany, NY-based Regional Food Bank is succeeding in helping diabetes patients measurably improve their health. The food bank’s 12-week Food Farmacy program provides patient households with weekly boxes of healthy food, along with weekly virtual nutrition counseling sessions. Results show patients significantly improving their…
Community Farmacy, a joint health initiative between Fort Wayne, IN-based Community Harvest Food Bank and a local healthcare facility, is making an impact on public health without prescribing pills. In just 12 weeks, participants in this year’s Community Farmacy program recorded notable improvements in their health, with some cutting their…
For all the talk about how important food is to health, it can be surprisingly difficult to get healthcare providers to refer patients to sources of healthy food. Island Harvest Food Bank has found a way around that issue by embedding its own dieticians in area hospitals and clinics. The…
The state of Massachusetts recently reached a milestone in its Food is Medicine journey. At the beginning of this year, 43 community-based organizations in the state, including many food banks, became Medicaid healthcare providers. “They have become just like your doctor,” said Stephanie Buckler, Deputy Director of Social Services Integration…
The timing could not have been better to demonstrate that major Food is Medicine interventions can improve patient health, while lowering costs. Three research studies released in as many months all point to a variety of positive outcomes related to Food is Medicine initiatives. The studies out of North Carolina,…