University of Pennsylvania Reports Findings in Managed Care (Caregiver Preferences for Primary Care Clinic-Based Food Assistance: A Discrete Choice Experiment): Managed Care

2024 MAR 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Managed Care is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pediatric providers screen families for food insecurity and connect them to appropriate resources. However, it is unclear how clinics can best provide families with resources consistent with their needs and preferences.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pennsylvania, “In this study, we elicited caregiver preferences for clinic-based food assistance. We conducted a cross-sectional discrete choice experiment in which caregivers at two pediatric primary care clinics were asked to choose between hypothetical food programs. Programs varied across four categories: (1) resources provided (e.g., food delivery, food in clinic, assistance enrolling in benefits); (2) support staff providing resources (e.g., social worker, community health worker, physician or nurse); (3) outreach modality (e.g., phone, email, text); and (4) outreach frequency. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess caregiver preferences within each category and the relative importance of each category to caregiver decisions. We surveyed 142 caregivers who were predominantly Black (87%) and Medicaid-insured (90%). Caregiver preferences for food programs were most strongly influenced by the food resources provided. Caregivers preferred food delivery over other forms of food supports, such as food provided in clinic. They preferred assistance from a benefits enrollment specialist, community health worker, or social worker to assistance from a physician or nurse. Pediatric clinics serving families at risk of food insecurity should use caregiver preferences to inform the design of family-centered interventions. Clinics should consider connecting caregivers with food delivery programs, and pediatric payors should adopt reimbursement models that support multidisciplinary team-based care to address food insecurity. In this discrete choice experiment, Medicaid-insured caregivers preferred home food delivery to other types of food assistance resources.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “They preferred support from a benefits enrollment specialist, community health worker, or social worker to support from a physician or nurse.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Caregiver Preferences for Primary Care Clinic-Based Food Assistance: A Discrete Choice Experiment. Academic Pediatrics, 2024. Academic Pediatrics can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Academic Pediatrics - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/academic-pediatrics/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Aditi Vasan, Dept. of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States. Additional authors for this research include DanaRose Negro, Mishaal Yazdani, Lindsay Benitez, Senbagam Virudachalam, Chen C. Kenyon and Alexander G. Fiks.

Publisher contact information for the journal Academic Pediatrics is: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA.

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