‘Medically tailored’ meals can avert hospital stays, save billions, study says

The study's findings appeared Monday in JAMA Network Open.

"For people with chronic illness and physical limitations that make it difficult for them to shop and cook for themselves, these programs are a highly promising strategy for improving health and well-being. The estimated reductions in hospitalizations and associated cost savings reflect that," researcher Kurt Hager, a doctoral candidate in Tufts' Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs program, said in a news release.

The idea is to deliver healthy, home-delivered meals that are customized and fully prepared to individuals living with complex, diet-related diseases, including diabetes, heart failure, end-stage renal disease, HIV and cancer, the release said.

Often, the meals support seriously ill individuals with lower incomes and limited mobility, as well as people who regularly experience food insecurity. Programs typically deliver 10 meals per week -- five lunches and five dinners -- to eligible patients.

However, medically tailored meals are not a covered benefit under Medicare or Medicaid, so researchers from Tufts University set out to estimate the potential impact of extending insurance coverage for these meals nationally.

The National Institutes of Health funded the study.

The economic analysis, which included eligible U.S. adults enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance, looked at the potential impact of national implementation of 10 nutritionally customized meals per week for roughly eight months in each year for patients with diet-sensitive conditions and activity limitations to arrive at its estimates.

Data were drawn from a nationally representative survey on healthcare utilization and costs for American adults, the 2019 Medical Expenditure Survey Panel Survey, and from previously published research on the impact of MTM interventions, the release said.

At the 2019 baseline, an estimated 6.3 million U.S. adults, averaging 68 years old, were eligible to receive medically tailored meals. Seven in 10 had cardiovascular diseases, 44.9% had diabetes, and 37.2% had cancer.

If all eligible individuals received these meals, an estimated 1.59 million hospitalizations and $38.7 billion in health care expenditures could potentially be averted in a single year, the researchers said.

They then subtracted estimated program costs of $24.8 billion to arrive at a net savings figure of $13.6 billion from a healthcare perspective.

Over 10 years, in 2019 dollars, the meals intervention was anticipated to cost $298.7 billion and to potentially avert almost 18.3 million hospitalizations. That would reduce healthcare expenditures by $484.5 billion for net savings of $185.1billion.