Today, the Medically Tailored Home-Delivered Meal Demonstration Pilot Act was introduced in the House as (H.R. 6780), making this proposal - for the first time - both bipartisan and bicameral. This bipartisan bill would establish a Medicare pilot program to address the critical link between diet, chronic illness, and the health of older Americans. We are so grateful to food is medicine champions and cosponsors of the bill Representatives James P. McGovern (D-MA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dwight Evans (D-PA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
As a national coalition of nutrition service providers, FIMC members provide a complete, research-based, medically tailored meal intervention to people living with severe, complex and chronic illness in their communities. Medically tailored meals are designed by Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and use food as an evidence-informed intervention to both treat and manage illness. Research conducted by the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy shows if all eligible patients received access to MTMs, in just the first year of service 1,594,000 hospitalizations could be avoided for a net cost savings of $13.6 billion.
Despite advances in research and healthcare contracting – led by FIMC – there are still gaps in access to this powerful disease treatment across the country.
Medicare Parts A and B do not pay for medically tailored meals, despite providing insurance for almost two-thirds of Medicare enrollees. This bill would fill this gap by directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a 4-year demonstration pilot program to provide medically tailored meals to some of our nation’s most vulnerable Medicare enrollees. Recently hospitalized Medicare enrollees with conditions such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, COPD, and kidney disease would receive a medically tailored meal intervention. The program would run in at least 10 states in at least 20 hospitals to test the intervention in a diversity of situations and would help researchers better understand how we can build a more resilient and cost-effective health care system through rigorous analysis.
The House bill and its companion in the Senate (S.2133) - introduced in June by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) - are key opportunities to support the health of older Americans and food is medicine services in the new year.
Read the press release here.
Read more about the bill here.