Funding Options for Meals and Medically Tailored Meals
This page collects background information and provides several overview documents. Please note that the policy for reimbursing food access as part of health services is evolving, so check the date of the materials provided to make sure you have the most recent information.
Overview Documents:
2022 Overview of Factors in Funding & Benefit Design (October, 2022)
2021 Overview of Funding Pathways (June, 2021)
Vermont Global Commitment to Health 1115 Waiver - Sets the parameters for new investments and services beyond the core Medicaid requirements. In Vermont, Home and Community Based Services are also covered in this waiver.
Medicare Advantage:
October 11th, 2022 Webinar on Meals in Medicare Advantage - Slide Deck and Recording [Passcode TX5=gk2b]
Produce Prescriptions as a Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefit - Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation
Overview of Benefit Design and Return on Investment from Mom’s Meals (2022)
Medicaid Examples:
Addressing Nutrition and Food Access in Medicaid (2021 Report)
What is Vermont’s 1115 Waiver? (2022 short explainer)
California - Meals Coverage in CalAIM and the California Food Is Medicine Coalition (meals providers)
North Carolina - Meals Coverage in Healthy Opportunities Pilot
Oregon - Office of Health Policy and 2022 - 2027 1115 Waiver; see also their presentation on this panel discussion from 2022.
Massachusetts - 1115 Waiver and Food Is Medicine Coalition
Other Examples:
Memo on Meals in Essential Health Benefits - Commercial Plan Options (August, 2022)
While Meals coverage is common in Medicare Advantage plans, traditional Medicare does not currently include this option. For an example of policy work on a Medicare Meals pilot, see this page from the Food Is Medicine Coalition.
Large Employer Self-Funded Insurance - Lifestyle Medicine Programs that contract with employer plans may include meals or have options for employers to source complementary meals locally, see for example Pivio, Tangelo, Omada Complete.
Kaiser Permanente - Medically Tailored Meals program within a fully integrated health care provider (Kaiser Permanente is the health plan, Permanente Medical Group is the physicians delivering the care)
Meals and Area Agencies on Aging - Podcast plus links to reports (Vermont, 2021) and Food Is Medicine for Older Adults symposium session recording (2021)
Related Issue Brief:
SDOH Coding - including for billing purposes.