Meal Delivery Programs Reduce The Use Of Costly Health Care In Dually Eligible Medicare And Medicaid Beneficiaries

摘要

It is unclear whether delivering food to nutritionally vulnerable patients can improve healthcare utilization and costs. We sought to determine whether home delivery of either medically-tailored meals (MTM) or non-tailored food (NTF) reduces healthcare utilization and expenditure in a sample of dually Medicare and Medicaid eligible adults. MTM program participants had fewer emergency department visits (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR] 0.30; 95%CI 0.20 to 0.45) than matched non-participants, as did NTF program participants (IRR 0.56; 95%CI 0.47 to 0.68). MTM program participants also had fewer inpatient admissions (IRR 0.48; 95%CI 0.26 to 0.90), and lower medical expenditure (difference -$572, 95% CI -$933 to -$210). NTF program participation was not associated with fewer inpatient admissions (IRR 0.88; 95%CI 0.69 to 1.11), but was associated with lower medical expenditure (difference -$159, 95%CI -$310 to -$8). Meal delivery programs may be an important way to improve healthcare utilization and costs for vulnerable patients.