Nourish partners with ModifyHealth to expand its food as medicine platform

13 Sep 2024 --- By collaborating with ModifyHealth, people across the US can order medically tailored meals prescribed by Nourish’s registered dietitians directly through the company’s food as medicine platform. The companies note that this helps overcome geographical and financial barriers to food security, while these meals help patients manage chronic conditions and improve health outcomes.

In the new partnership, ModifyHealth will ensure home delivery of its medically tailored meals designed to meet specific dietary needs. Research shows these meals can improve health outcomes, reduce hospitalizations and lower overall healthcare costs as they ensure that patients receive the nutrition needed to manage their conditions. 

“Food as medicine programs have been shown to improve health outcomes significantly, yet many US citizens face barriers accessing nutritious food,” says Aidan Dewar, co-founder and CEO of Nourish. 

“With our new partnership with ModifyHealth, we’re tackling food insecurity — both geographical and financial — by providing medically tailored meals covered by health plans so that more people can experience the health benefits of proper nutrition.”

Food as medicine programs are expanding across the US. However, experts note that the country’s healthcare system needs to do more to integrate food-based nutritional interventions to increase population-wide nutrition security, health equity and wellness. 

Tackling food insecurity

US food insecurity is growing. The partners stress that this problem is more pronounced among people with chronic illnesses. Moreover, individuals facing food insecurity are more likely to experience poor health outcomes and higher healthcare costs. Nourish and ModifyHealth aim to increase access to high-quality nourishment, especially for people facing barriers to accessing nutrition. 

“We’re excited to partner with Nourish to provide ModifyHealth’s medically tailored meals prescribed by Nourish’s dietitian team,” adds Hagan Jordan, chief commercial officer at ModifyHealth. 

“Medically tailored meals play a critical role in addressing food insecurity and managing chronic disease, and this partnership makes lifestyle changes even easier and more effective for dietitians to prescribe and their patients to implement.”

Moreover, Nourish aims to make these meals accessible to many people. The company will accept benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) for these meals. 

In addition, Nourish works with health plans, including Medicaid, to subsidize meal costs and improve people’s access to these meals. The company will also help patients enroll in SNAP and WIC. 

Nourish’s app provides education and support from dietitians to help patients understand and meet their dietary needs.Food as Medicine platform

Through this collaboration, Nourish will expand its food as medicine platform, which includes medical nutrition therapy and an innovative app. 

Under the medical nutrition therapy offered, patients regularly meet with a registered dietitian for interventions that help change eating behaviors and improve their relationship with food. The company notes that these sessions are fully covered by health insurance.

The company’s mobile app provides educational content and support from registered dietitians to help patients understand and meet their dietary needs. The app also tracks patients’ meals and progress to help them build and maintain healthy habits. 

Nourish’s dietitians provide personalized nutrition support for people of all life stages and in over 50 critical health conditions, such as diabetes, heart health, gut health, autoimmune diseases, cancer and weight loss. 

The company notes that positive health outcomes from its platform include a 25% decrease in eating disorder symptoms within the first 30 days. They also include a 23% reduction in low-density level cholesterol in at-risk patients, an average weight loss of 5% for patients with a body mass index of over 30 and a one percentage point reduction in hemoglobin A1c, reducing risks in diabetes and heart diseases. 

Moreover, as patients improve their understanding of nutrition, they also make lifestyle changes, such as tripling their daily intake of fruits and vegetables and boosting their weekly physical activity. 

Recognizing the potential of food as medicine, the American Heart Association announced a US$7.9 million reward earlier this year to 19 research projects that examine the efficacy of adding healthy food provisions to patient care, aiming to help treat, manage and prevent chronic health conditions and alleviate health inequities.

Meanwhile, the US Institute of Food Technologists established a steering committee with food scientists to drive the national food is medicine initiative, a building block of the country’s strategy to end hunger and reduce chronic disease by 2030. 

By Jolanda van Hal