Relates to medical assistance coverage for medically tailored meals

• Democratic4

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Gustavo Rivera says this is needed

Appropriate food and nutrition are critical to the management of chronic illness. Maintaining immune function, increasing absorption of medica- tions, and maintaining a healthy body weight can help manage costly diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, COPD, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. Food and nutrition services include medical nutritional therapy and the medically tailored food that accompanies it. Medical nutrition therapy involves diagnostic therapy and counseling on disease management by a certified dietitian or certified nutritionist as well as medically tailored meals indicated by such therapy, including home-de- livered meals. Lack of adequate nutrition is a significant predictor of hospitaliza- tion, re-hospitalization, and increased length of a hospital stay. In a Clinical Nutrition Study, malnutrition was evident in up to one-third of inpatients and led to poor hospitalization outcomes, survival rates, and increased cost of care. This study reported hospital stays to be 50% longer in malnourished patients, who were also nearly twice as likely to be readmitted within 15 days. The average inpatient hospitalization cost for malnourished patients was 24% higher than average and nutrition-spe- cific Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) are among the top ten reasons that Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted to the hospital. A study by the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA), a Philadelphia food and nutrition services agency, compared the healthcare costs of MANNA clients to a control group. The results showed that in the MANNA program, clients' average monthly healthcare costs fell 62% within the first three months that they received food and nutritional services and 60% for HIV/AIDS patients. If hospitalized, MANNA's clients had 30% lower hospitalization costs than the control group, 37% shorter stays, and 20% higher discharges to the home rather than an institution. Compared to the cost of hospitalizations or institutionalizations, food and nutritional services are inexpensive. A person can receive a home- delivered diet tailored to their unique medical circumstances for $20 per day, compared to several thousand dollars per day for a hospital bed. In other words, preventing one day of hospitalization covers the cost of half a year of medically tailored meals.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.