‘Food as Medicine’ Programs Could Save the U.S. Billions, Study Finds

As the saying goes, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” and now there’s scientific data to back it up. 

On April 7, researchers from the Food is Medicine Institute at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University published a new analysis in the peer-reviewed health care journal Health Affairs, investigating what would happen if all 50 states provided medically tailored meals to individuals with diet-sensitive health conditions. And the results are financially and medically staggering.

The study defines medically tailored meals as “prepared, home-delivered meals, typically provided to people with complex health conditions and high acuity of care based on a referral from a medical professional or health plan,” and explains that these are designed by registered dietitian nutritionists based on a patient’s diagnosis and needs. The ultimate goal of these meal plans is to “improve diet-related health outcomes, reduce financial strain and improve associated well-being, address disparities, and reduce health care spending.”

According to the research team’s findings, if every U.S. state adopted the model, the nation could save approximately $32.1 billion in net health care costs in the first year alone and prevent 3.5 million hospitalizations per year due to complications from chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. 

“The most striking finding is that medically tailored meals, assuming full uptake by eligible individuals, were cost-saving in 49 of 50 states, highlighting their potential to reduce both financial and health burdens,” Shuyue (Amy) Deng, the first author of the study and a doctoral student at the Friedman School, shared in a statement. “These results emphasize the potential for policymakers to integrate medically tailored meals into health care coverage at scale.” 

The team found that Connecticut would benefit the most, saving around $6,300 in health care costs per patient. Research showed that 49 states would have cost savings per patient, with Alabama the only outlier where medically tailored meals would be cost neutral. Nevertheless, residents of Alabama would still reap the health benefits of these meals. 

The authors used an open-cohort, population-based simulation model to predict these outcomes — and to be certain their results were accurate, they ran the simulation 1,000 times. Their analysis factored in variations across states, such as variables like eligible population sizes, baseline annual health care expenditures, annual hospitalizations, and state-specific health care management strategies, which accounts for the different outcomes in different states.

The number of people this kind of program could help would be profound, with the researchers finding that more than 14 million people would qualify for the service, with over 1.2 million in California alone. Of those included in the simulations, the majority of patients (89.7%) are covered by Medicare and Medicaid services, with the remaining individuals covered through private insurance.

“Our findings suggest that medically tailored meals are not just good medicine — they’re good economics,” says senior author Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School. “States are excellent incubators for health care innovation. Investing in medically tailored meals could transform care for vulnerable patients in every state while creating substantial health care value.”

The researchers noted that there is already real-world evidence of the impact that this approach to medicine can have, citing state programs like the California Food is Medicine Coalition (CalFIMC), which provides medically tailored meals to low-income Californians.

In the coalition’s first year review, Richard Ayoub, chair of CalFIMC and executive director of Project Angel Food in Los Angeles, explained, “Participants who completed the program during its first year reported hospital readmission rates consistent with reduced readmission rates of similar intervention programs across the country.” Ayoub added that “Patients who completed the CalFIMC program reported improved health outcomes over the course of the intervention.”

According to additional research published in Health Affairs by analysts from Tufts and Harvard University this March, 15 states have approved or pending Section 1115 Medicaid waivers for nutrition intervention programs.

These researchers also conducted a national survey of sentiment around “Food Is Medicine” approaches — which use nutrition to manage and treat chronic diseases — and found “broad public support for efforts to expand coverage of Food Is Medicine through Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits and the Advance Investment Payments option in the Medicare Shared Savings Program,” along with support for coverage of Food Is Medicine programs through private health insurance.  

Efforts to accommodate medically tailored diets don’t just include medical professionals, with the study from March noting: “The broad public interest in Food Is Medicine interventions suggests that there would be demand for efforts by grocery stores, pharmacies, farmers markets, and food delivery programs to partner with health systems, insurance providers, and technology vendors to incorporate Food Is Medicine approaches in their retail offerings.”