The meals as medication motion has been choosing up steam, with the White Home gathering $8 billion in commitments for meals packages, payers launching medically-tailored meal pilots and startups gaining funding from buyers. Rising analysis reveals that there are each well being and price advantages to meals and vitamin packages.
There are a number of meals as medication fashions, akin to medically tailor-made meals (ready-to-eat meals), produce prescriptions (when sufferers get vouchers to buy wholesome meals) and medical and purposeful meals (condition-specific meals that require preparation).
Whereas there are advantages to meals as medication, there are a number of challenges dealing with the motion, based on a report revealed Friday by PitchBook. The report, authored by Rising Expertise Analyst Aaron DeGagne, laid out 4 key challenges and critiques:
1. Resistance to eating regimen restrictions: Some shoppers could push again in opposition to meals restrictions in meals as medication packages, notably government-led packages as a result of “they could possibly be seen as the federal government telling folks what to eat,” the report said. Nevertheless, a number of distributors instructed PitchBook that their meals packages provide “flexibility” to members. Moreover, some members could also be prepared to have interaction in a extra restrictive eating regimen if it means they will keep away from costly prescriptions and expensive surgical procedures sooner or later.
2. Meals high quality: One concern for meals as medication packages is that some distributors provide “extremely processed meals.” Components like corn syrup and preservatives are identified to extend the danger of power ailments, and “medical and purposeful meals which are extremely processed could face a tougher path in receiving suggestions from care suppliers,” DeGagne said.
“This raises the bar for medical & purposeful meals distributors to indicate their meals merchandise not solely accomplish medical targets but additionally restrict pointless additive substances (whereas remaining palatable to shoppers),” the report mentioned.
3. Attribution: A balanced eating regimen is just one issue to being wholesome. Different elements that have an effect on well being embody genetic danger, environmental publicity and autoimmune situations.
“On condition that meals as medication should be a part of a balanced strategy, it could even be troublesome to attribute well being enhancements to a single prepared-meal vendor or a limited-dollar produce subsidy,” DeGagne famous. “Extra medical information might help higher reimbursement of meals as medication, although contemplating these attribution challenges, there is a component of belief at play that food-as-medicine distributors should be cautious to not lose.”
4. Compliance: It is rather troublesome to trace compliance with meals as medication packages, as there aren’t any wearable gadgets that may achieve this. This makes it much more difficult to gather medical information and perceive the affect of meals as medication packages.
Whereas there are challenges to meals as medication packages, DeGagne nonetheless anticipates a future for them, notably given the curiosity from buyers throughout a troublesome fundraising local weather. A number of meals packages have raised funds to date in 2023, together with Mend ($15 million in Sequence A), Modify Well being ($10 million in Sequence B), Bitewell ($4 million in seed funding) and Free From Market ($2.1 million in seed funding). PitchBook foresees firms with “built-in” packages — akin to a mix of meals supply, teaching and vitamin providers — being essentially the most profitable. One firm the report known as out is Faeth, which gives ready-to-go meals to help most cancers care and an app that offers on-demand help from nutritionists.
The report famous that a number of healthcare gamers have a task to play in advancing meals as medication packages. Suppliers will possible begin to provide vitamin packages to sufferers once they grow to be extra out there by way of well being plans.
Managed care organizations (MCOs) even have a possibility, as meals packages are sometimes focused towards underserved and low-income teams. MCOs have two main incentives for getting concerned in these sorts of packages: they might result in less expensive procedures down the street and the packages can “be used as a advertising effort” to realize extra members.
Payviders have a task as properly, since they’re within the “distinctive place of proudly owning their very own practices and are due to this fact extremely incentivized to scale back the price of power situations that may be prevented by way of correct vitamin,” DeGagne mentioned. Kaiser Permanente and Geisinger, each payviders, have launched pilot meals as medication packages, and these efforts could possibly be superior after Kaiser’s acquisition of Geisinger.
Whereas healthcare gamers could also be cautious of packages like medically-tailored meals as a result of they might require long-term funding, PitchBook mentioned they could possibly be a great place to begin.
“We maintain the view that medically tailor-made meals generally is a good preliminary entry level for meals as medication, and members might later transition to lower-cost packages centered on vitamin and dietary steerage,” the report mentioned. “For instance, in a consolidated platform, customers might have entry to medically tailor-made meals which are totally coated for a time period after which be supplied common appointments with a coach or dietitian on an ongoing foundation. This strategy serves a twin function of conserving customers lively on a food-as-medicine platform for an extended interval and controlling prices to allow higher scale.”
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