Modeling the value of ‘Food is Medicine’: Challenges and opportunities for scaling up medically tailored meals

As medically tailored meal (MTM) programs rapidly expand across the US and increasingly are adopted by health care payers, understanding their cost-effectiveness is critical to informing policy. In this Perspective, we explore implications of the cost-effectiveness simulation model by Shuyue Deng and colleagues. That model, which used state-specific data to examine how nationwide implementation of MTMs among adults with diet-sensitive health conditions would reduce health care use and costs, found that MTMs would be cost saving in nearly all US states. Building on these promising results, we argue for integrating real-world variations in MTM program design into future models, including dose, duration, and ancillary services. We underscore the importance of quality (informed by evidence-based standards) and of advancing patient-centered, equity-oriented approaches to intervention. Expanding the analytical perspective beyond the health care system to include societal costs and benefits, including for patients and nonprofit MTM providers, could broaden understanding of the value of MTMs. Models that reflect the complexity of MTM interventions are needed to inform their equitable, cost-effective integration into health care policies.