Largest Study of Medically Tailored Meals Advances with NIH Grant

$2M Supports Collaboration of Community Servings with Researchers from Tufts University, UMass Chan Medical School to Assess Health Outcomes of Meal Interventions

BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Servings today announced that its scientific collaboration with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and UMass Chan Medical School has received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support a study of home-delivered medically tailored meals – an intervention already growing in use to improve health outcomes and lower medical costs for people living with critical and chronic illness.

This is the third NIH grant awarded for medically tailored meal intervention studies on which Community Servings has collaborated with researchers. This 30-month collaboration will examine the experiences of more patients than any previous study of medically tailored meals (MTM). It will evaluate the impact of MTM on obesity, diabetes, nutrition insecurity and health care utilization with different health systems across Massachusetts through the MassHealth Flexible Services Program, which funds health-related nutrition and housing supports for certain eligible members of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

"Thanks to the vital grant funding from NIH and the collaborative efforts of our scientific research colleagues, we will be able to paint a more detailed picture that illustrates the healing power of food for those who are living with critical and chronic illness," said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings. "This broad study will go a long way in helping health care providers, payers and policymakers better understand the impact of medically tailored meals on medical outcomes for people with diabetes, obesity and nutrition insecurity."

Researchers will partner with MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, along with at least five ACOs – including Cambridge Health Alliance, Community Care Cooperative, Mass General Brigham, Tufts Medicine, and Southcoast Health – to evaluate data from almost 5,000 patients who are enrolled in the Flexible Services Program and receive meals from Community Servings. The study will explore differences in outcomes between program enrollees and ACO members who do not receive the meals.

"Diet-related diseases cause worryingly high health and economic burdens. For the sickest patients, past studies have shown that home-delivered medically tailored meal programs can contribute to reduced hospitalizations and ER visits, increased overall dietary healthfulness, and five-figure health care costs savings per patient," said Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, the principal investigator on the new grant and Dean for Policy and Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School. "Our project to evaluate the impact of the $150 million Medicaid program in Massachusetts will do a great deal to help advance nutrition security in our state and nationally."

"Although policymakers and health care leaders are increasingly recognizing the value of forging partnerships between health care systems and community-based organizations to address health-related social needs such as nutritional deficiencies, many Americans currently lack access to MTMs and other services to address social needs that harm their health," said Matthew Alcusky, PhD, PharmD, assistant professor of population and quantitative health sciences and principal investigator of the study at UMass Chan.

Dr. Alcusky is also the principal investigator of UMass Chan's Independent Evaluation of MassHealth's federally funded Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program, which funds the Flexible Services Program. "We hope that this evaluation of MassHealth's Flexible Services MTM programs will promote evidence-based policymaking and enhanced program development across the country," he said.

Community Servings and other research partners previously were awarded two NIH grants, in 2020 and 2021, for combined funding of $6.1 million to better understand how medically tailored meals can address food insecurity and support those with various diseases.

In previous studies, health care claims for patients receiving Community Servings' MTM intervention were 16% lower when compared against control groups with similar demographics who did not receive the intervention. This new study will further examine cost implications for patients by compiling data on MTM delivery and health care utilization including emergency department visits, inpatient admissions and total health care costs among those who received the MTMs.

More details about the latest study can be found here.

Founded in 1990, Community Servings' mission is to actively engage the community to provide medically tailored, nutritious, scratch-made meals to chronically and critically ill individuals and their families. We commit, in all our programs and business practices, to prioritize racial and economic justice and health equity. To help clients maintain their health and dignity, we provide culturally appropriate meals, nutrition education and counseling, and other community programs. Our kitchen team, with support from thousands of volunteers, prepares over 1,000,000 medically tailored meals that are served to more than 5,000 clients annually. For more information about programs and opportunities to volunteer or donate, please visit www.servings.org.

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SOURCE Community Servings