Champion Provider Fellows Drs. Emma Steinberg and Kimberly Newell-Green (San Francisco County, Cohort 3) served on the project steering committee for the recently published policy report Integrating Food into Health Care: A Landscape Analysis of Medically Supportive Food and Nutrition Interventions in California. The report summarizes the result of a landscape analysis of all currently operating Medically-Supportive Food and Nutrition (MSF&N) programs in California. MSF&N programs can include food pharmacies, produce prescriptions, and medically tailored meals. These programs, or interventions, have shown to be effective in lowering blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and body-mass index. While the survey results show that there are many organizations across California offering these programs, many indicate that sustainable funding and health care provider capacity are major barriers to scaling their programs.

In January 2021, the California Department of Health Care Service (DHCS) released its draft Medicaid waiver application, CalAIM, which included Medically Supportive Food and Nutrition. The new waiver language would allow health plans across California to opt-in to providing MSF&N services to their patients and have them paid for with Medicaid dollars. In addition, it provides opt-in incentives for health plans and incentives to support service provider capacity. Before this opportunity can be fully actualized, the report identifies three recommendations for action by key stakeholders.

READ THE REPORT HERE