For Immediate Release:
June 27, 2017
Sacramento, CA - Working hand-in-hand with leading non-profits across California, Senator McGuire has secured $6 million over three years for an innovative first-of-its-kind healthy food pilot project for low income Californians with chronic health diseases.
The soon-to-be launched program is modeled off of work in Philadelphia by the organization Manna. There, the pilot project demonstrated after delivering three medically tailored meals each day to 65 patients with chronic diseases for six months, healthcare costs dropped from $38,937 per month to $28,183 per month and were 55 percent lower than other groups in
the study.
Project Open Hand in San Francisco, Project Angel Food in Los Angeles, Health Trust in San Jose, The Ceres Community Project in the North Bay Area and Mama's Kitchen in San Diego embarked on a crusade to get state funding secured in the budget for a statewide pilot program to include medically-tailored, home-delivered meals that are appropriate for the individual's chronic diseases.
"This amazing coalition of non-profits has done life changing work throughout the state. We couldn't be more excited to turn this local success story into a statewide program that will improve the health of those who need it most while reducing costs for taxpayers over the long term," Senator McGuire said. "The bottom line: We believe, over the next three years, we'll demonstrate enhanced health outcomes for chronically ill Medi-Cal patients and save millions in health costs."
The funding for this pilot project is included in SB 97, a budget bill that was voted on and approved in the Senate Monday afternoon. The $6 million will be used over a three-year pilot project period. The funds will target chronically ill Medi-Cal patients who suffer from congestive heart failure, cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or renal disease.
The pilot project will track the utilization of the program closely, along with health outcomes, before, during and after the program has ended.
At the end of the 3-year program, the Department of Health Care Services will evaluate what impact the program had on hospital readmissions, decreased admissions to long term care facilities, and emergency room utilization and will report the findings back to the legislature.
SB 97 is now headed to the Governor's desk for his signature.
What experts are saying about the medically tailored meal program:
"This is an exciting time for our agencies and those very vulnerable, critically ill Californians we serve. We are particularly thrilled that the California Legislature had the vision to launch the very first statewide, medically-tailored-meal program in the United States. California is once again leading the nation in the implementing low cost/high return medical interventions to improve the health of our most marginalized and underserved citizens."
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Mark Ryle, CEO Project Open Hand, San Francisco
"Los Angeles has the highest food insecurity rate in the country. This pilot program will go a long way to make sure that people who are sick and hungry can get the food that not only keeps them alive, but will help them heal. We applaud the State of California for being visionaries in reducing food stress in the state, while bringing down the cost of health care. With a medically tailored intervention, we expect health care costs to be reduced by at least 20 percent."
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Richard Ayoub, Executive Director Project Angel Food, Los Angeles
"We are thrilled for the opportunity to demonstrate that we can improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable health-challenged California residents by providing medically tailored meals; and in doing so significantly decrease the cost of providing healthcare. A winning situation for all of California!"
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Alberto Cortes, Executive Director Mama's Kitchen, San Diego
"High quality food is the missing piece of the puzzle for many patients, especially those on Medi-Cal who are often food insecure. We are grateful to Senator McGuire whose vision and leadership were critical to creating and forming this pilot project. The research is clear - when patients have enough healthy food, especially when it's tailored to their illness, they feel better and they do better. This translates to less emergency room visits, shorter hospital stays, a greater ability to adhere to treatment - and all of that leads to lower healthcare costs."
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Cathryn Couch, CEO Ceres Community Project, Sonoma County
"I am so pleased to see progress toward ensuring that the most critically ill patients have access to the food they need to stay healthy in their homes. Not only do these meals nourish, but they also hold promise for keeping people out of the hospital, preventing health crises, and allowing people to maintain independence at home."
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Hilary Seligman, MD PhD UCSF Global Health Sciences
