Clinical-community partnerships to reduce food insecurity among high-need, high-cost Medicaid patients

Cross-sector partnerships between clinical programs and community-based organizations (CBOs) are a promising tool to address food insecurity and could be an important adjunct to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in improving the health of vulnerable patients. These partnerships would connect food-insecure patients to existing CBOs that provide nutrition services. Recent innovations to address food insecurity include food prescription programs, which provide vouchers for fresh fruits and vegetables that can be redeemed at participating vendors, and medical nutrition therapy (MNT), which provides medically tailored meals and nutrition counseling to patients with specific health conditions, such as diabetes.