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Highmark Well being is piloting a brand new program that addresses meals insecurity and can present eligible members with medically-tailored meals, the corporate introduced Monday.
The six-month pilot program goals to help 1,000 Highmark insurance coverage members with sure continual well being situations and who’re at high-risk of meals insecurity. Eligible continual situations embody continual kidney illness, congestive coronary heart failure, hypertension and diabetes. These members will obtain two medically-tailored meals a day, in addition to teaching and social work to assist them stay a more healthy way of life.
Along with addressing meals insecurity, Highmark’s program will work to cut back different areas of well being inequity as effectively, mentioned Nebeyou Abebe, senior vp of social determinants of well being on the firm.
“Once we interact the member and notice that they’re meals insecure, we’re additionally assessing for different health-related social wants,” Abebe mentioned in an interview. “This particular person may have transportation points or be coping with housing points or home violence. That presents one other alternative for our social employee to have a dialog with a member.”
As this system goes on, Highmark will observe members’ degree of engagement, in addition to scientific measurements like blood sugar and emergency room visits. Tracy Saula, senior vp of product and well being expertise at Highmark Well being, hopes this system won’t solely enhance members’ well being, however decrease healthcare prices as effectively.
“We consider that it may simply lead to clearly improved well being, which is crucial,” Saula mentioned in an interview. “But additionally a discount in whole price of care, someplace between 10-16% … Our objective in that is to establish, is that this the sort of profit we may present long term?”
There’s a robust hyperlink between diet and well being, analysis exhibits. People who find themselves meals insecure have the next danger of continual ailments, elevated hospitalizations, larger price of care and psychological well being challenges, in line with the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis. Moreover, a current examine revealed in JAMA Community Open discovered that if payers supplied medically-tailored meals to sufferers with diet-sensitive limitations, they may save $13.6 billion yearly.
The meals as drugs motion has gained momentum not too long ago, notably after the White Home held a convention in September about meals insecurity. Abebe mentioned Highmark’s new program is in alignment with the White Home’s efforts. Different healthcare organizations addressing meals insecurity and diet embody Kaiser Permanente and Geisinger.
Saula mentioned she hopes Highmark’s initiatives can in the end show the advantage of packages that handle meals insecurity in order that extra healthcare gamers become involved.
“If you wish to begin to actually take into consideration meals as drugs and deal with it as such — which suggests insurers paying for it the identical means an insurer would pay for a diabetic drugs — they want proof that it really works,” Saula mentioned.
Picture: vgajic, Getty Photos
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