It’s well-known that consuming healthy, nutritious foods can help prevent, manage or treat some clinical conditions. Embracing this concept, ATA Action (the American Telemedicine Association’s advocacy arm) and others launched a Virtual Foodcare Coalition this year to develop and promote policies that align telehealth with nutritional support, promoting overall health.
Journalists can find numerous interesting story angles writing about virtual foodcare by interviewing dietitians and other providers of this service, clients receiving the service, and by examining legislative efforts in progress. See my suggestions at the end of this post.
What is virtual foodcare?
Virtual foodcare aims to enhance health outcomes and reduce health care costs by making expert nutritional advice and support widely accessible through telehealth and other innovative technologies, said Kyle Zebley, senior vice president of public policy at ATA and executive director of ATA.
“What we’re trying to do is expand access to medically nutritious meals, and make sure that our food support programs such as SNAP and WIC are offering ways for beneficiaries of those programs to [be able to have that food delivered to their homes] through online access points,” Zebley said during a recent webinar as part of Telehealth Awareness Week.
“We want those meals to be reimbursed…and we want to break down geographic barriers and end food deserts.” Food deserts are geographic areas where people have limited access to healthy, affordable food.
The coalition favors allowing online meetings with registered dietitians and other health care professionals — even across state lines — to ensure people get the food and care they need, he said. “It’s all underlying this concept that’s been around for many years now, which is that food is medicine. It can help in preventative care, and it can help treat chronic disease.”
Founding members of the coalition include telehealth organizations such as Teladoc Health and hims & hers; foodcare providers such as Amazon, Albertson’s and Mom’s Meals; and the Nixon Law Group, which advises digital and other companies.
Virtual foodcare in action
Foodsmart, one of the coalition’s founding members, is one supplier of virtual foodcare. The company, a national provider organization, has nearly 1,000 registered dietitians across the country who use telehealth to meet with clients and offer medical nutrition therapy and food benefits management. The majority of their clients have Medicaid insurance. The organization also has digital tools available to help with patient monitoring and supporting adherence to nutrition care plans, said Melissa Isavoran, the company’s vice president of network contracting and policy, during the webinar.
“We wrap around the patient with tools to help them with meal planning based on their condition, and we help them with purchasing nutritious food in a cost-effective way,” Isavoran said.
Many of the company’s clients have socioeconomic barriers preventing typical access to coming to in-person appointments and accessing healthy food, such as mobility and transportation issues, or living in rural locations where the local grocer might be a dollar store, she said. Some need to work and can’t take off to attend appointments. “We really need to leverage telehealth to bridge the gap between community and health facilities and offer flexibility in the hours and availability of our registered dietitians to provide care,” Isavoran said.
Proper nutrition doesn’t just impact diabetes and kidney disease, but also cancer, behavioral health, eating disorders, HIV/AIDs and more, she noted.
Virtual foodcare policies that could support more Americans
Coalition members have identified a number of federal and state policy priorities. Here are a few:
Federal policy recommendations
Supporting the Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) Act. The ATA is advocating for passage of this act, as it would expand Medicare coverage for nutrition therapy through telehealth for all conditions where foodcare can generate improvements in health outcomes and cost-effectiveness. This includes obesity, prediabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions, an ATA news release noted.
“This would vastly expand the number of patients able to receive reimbursable medical nutrition therapy in Medicare,” Zebley said.
They also are supporting the Medically Tailored Home-Delivered Meals Demonstration Pilot Act, through which hospitals can provide medically tailored, home-delivered meals and associated nutrition therapy, for Medicare beneficiaries with a diet-impacted disease (such as kidney disease) following hospital discharge.
Supporting demonstration projects within Medicare or the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) that showcase the benefits and feasibility of telehealth-enabled nutrition care.
Drafting a Virtual Foodcare Innovation Model to introduce to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center.
State policy recommendations
Supporting the Dietitian Licensure Compact, which allows dietitians to obtain privileges to practice in remote states where they are not licensed. Thirteen states are now members, said Hunter Young, ATA Action’s head of state government relations, in the webinar.
Advocating for state Medicaid agencies to adopt section 1115 waivers that include coverage for evidence-based, medically tailored meals and nutrition services. “Some states are implementing really great, innovative programs that are very efficient and very helpful,” Young said.
Integrating virtual foodcare policy priorities into advocacy efforts surrounding the Rural Health Transformation Program, authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to strengthen rural communities by improving health care delivery.
Crossover state-federal policy recommendations
Supporting the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force designating medical nutrition therapy as a preventive service for all individuals.
Advocating for the inclusion of nutrition benefits in commercial and public insurance plans, ensuring services are accessible in-person and virtually.
Supporting policies that promote comprehensive food benefits management.
Endorsing the integration of pharmacists into care teams to improve coordination and referrals to dietitians.
Supporting federal investment in broadband infrastructure and device accessibility to ensure low-income communities have access to telehealth services including virtual nutrition care.
Coverage for virtual foodcare so far is limited
There is limited insurance coverage for medically tailored meals for patients who already have developed chronic conditions such as diabetes, Young said. However, people cannot get coverage for these meals unless they already have such a condition.
“If we can expand that to people who may be likely to develop diabetes based on genetic conditions, we can make a real difference in those patients’ lives and then ultimately delay — if not entirely stave off — the development of that disease, which creates a lot of cost savings, not only for those patients but for the health system as well,” he said.
Story ideas
Journalists could cover virtual foodcare in various ways, such as:
Following legislation such as the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act, and interviewing policy makers, older adults who might benefit, etc.
Pursuing stories explaining how virtual foodcare works, from the perspective of a client who receives nutritional counseling and guidance purchasing food, or from an organization providing dietitian services.
Diving into specific diseases and how special diets or foods can benefit people with those conditions.
Look into what state governments are doing with the 1115 waivers.
Write about how virtual foodcare could fit into the Rural Health Transformation Program.
Resources