What you need to know:
– Foodsmart, a leader in telenutrition and food benefit management, today announced the results of a new study resulting from a nearly three-year partnership with Chorus Community Health Plans (CCHP), an affiliate of Children’s Wisconsin.
– FoodSmart and CCHP launched a partnership in July 2021 to close nutritional access gaps in Wisconsin and address health concerns related to food insecurity across the state. This is the first program to be documented among the entire Medicaid and Marketplace population. Our members demonstrate that food is medicine and reduce health care costs by improving food access and affordability, overall nutritional status, and related health outcomes.
Transforming health through food: The impact of the Foodsmart and CCHP partnership in Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, where CCHP members receive assistance, more than 400,000 people face food insecurity, and more than 37% of households receiving SNAP assistance have children, totaling more than 140,000 minors. struggle to meet their nutritional needs.
Recognizing this pressing issue, Foodsmart and CCHP have maintained a partnership to address food insecurity across Wisconsin. Foodsmart, the largest food benefit management company in the U.S., offers food benefit management services, including enrolling members in SNAP benefits and creating customized, personalized nutrition plans to combat food-related chronic diseases such as diabetes. I oversee all aspects.
The study conducted by CCHP and Foodsmart utilized matched-pair control claims analysis to assess the impact of their partnership and ensured that the control group closely matched the non-control group on demographics. The findings show that by participating in the Foodsmart-CCHP program, Medicaid members experience savings of $32 PMPM and Exchange members experience savings of $45 PMPM, resulting in significant savings on average health insurance claims. has become clear.
The joint effort aimed to develop scalable solutions to address food insecurity and nutrition-related chronic diseases. Membership benefits include unlimited access to dedicated nutritionist visits, access to thousands of affordable recipes, integrated healthy FoodsMART for grocery price comparisons and delivery arrangements, and local This includes saving on groceries with deals and coupons, assistance with registering and using SNAP/EBT, and assistance with: Find available community resources.
Additionally, Foodsmart works with Children’s Wisconsin to prescribe meals to patients, many of whom are under the age of 18, and through CCHP’s partnership with Foodsmart, they achieve an average PMPM savings of $24.
This initiative has been CCHP’s most widely adopted program to date, with more than 10% of CCHP households enrolled. Additionally, other households indirectly benefit from Foodsmart’s partnership with his CCHP by accessing SNAP benefits, affordable recipes, grocery discounts, and educational programs.
By specifically targeting food insecurity as a critical factor in nutrition-sensitive chronic conditions, significant savings were observed among members with these conditions. For example, members with diabetes experienced savings of $107 PMPM, members with hypertension saw savings of $101 PMPM, and members with hyperlipidemia saw savings of $167 PMPM. Across all conditions, a Foodsmart member realized savings ranging from $62 PMPM to $871 PMPM over her 12 months. Although this study focuses on CCHP members, its results are closely consistent with other claims analyzes assessing the impact of Food Smart programs on population health and health care costs.
Foodsmart strengthens access to essential food benefits for vulnerable communities susceptible to food insecurity and malnutrition by reducing health insurance claims costs. The partnership between Foodsmart and CCHP is a compelling example of the transformative impact such programs can have.
“We had no idea how much of an impact this program would have on our community,” said Mark Rakowski, president of Corus Community Health Plans. “Since offering FoodSmart to our members, we’ve not only saved money on insurance claims, but our ‘food is medicine’ approach has helped reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease and an overall reduction in diet. , we’re seeing how it’s helping our members’ health and anxiety. It’s also the most widespread of any program we’ve implemented, reaching over 11,000 people to date. benefits our members.”
