Supporting low-income workers to address nutritional needs

An initiative by Elevance Health to address socioeconomic needs of its low-income employees through a narrow-network plan and in-kind assistance has shown early success in improving well-being with respect to their ability to afford and secure nutritious food. Elevance Health set out to determine the impact of a custom, incremental social benefit program offered to low-income employees; the program featured access to a narrow network of providers plus access to in-kind nutritional support, with the goal of enhancing food security, quality of diet, and self-reported health. Elevance designed a retrospective longitudinal cohort study comparing responses to three surveys conducted through calendar year 2021 between employees enrolled in the social benefit (with an income of less than $42,500) and those who waived the benefit or marginally missed eligibility (income range $42,500–$62,500); this included 1,837 Elevance employees (1,583 in the treatment group and 254 in the control group). The survey outcomes included employees’ self-reported food security, financial security, quality of diet, and health status. Among the treatment group, 413 of 1,583 (26.1%), reported improvement in food security (concern that their food would run out before they got money to buy more), which was more than double the 12.6% who reported improvement among the 254 Elevance employees in the control group. There was less variation between groups when respondents assessed their health in general: 280 of 1,583 (17.7%) of the benefit group indicated improvement between the March and December 2021 surveys, whereas 37 of 254 (14.6%) in the control group reported improvement. Of note, 257 (16.2%) of the treatment group reported a decline in their overall health, whereas 41 (16.1%) of the control group reported a decline.