NASHVILLE, Tenn.—As more and more health plans look to grocery deliveries to address food insecurity, experts say payers can use the deliveries to help fuel greater member engagement.
“We built a strategy around food and produce, and it has been the wild west out there right now,” said Ashley Tyrner, founder and CEO of FarmBox, whose subsidiary FarmboxRx offers food programs for managed care organizations. “Everybody has wanted to add it but, once you add it, how are you engaging members?”
Tyrner spoke about the need to use grocery deliveries to boost engagement with members and encourage them to use other social determinants of health benefits such as transportation during a session Wednesday at the RISE 2022 National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Low-income populations are not used to getting the experience of food deliveries to their door, said Tyrner, whose company has partnered with Molina Healthcare on the deliveries for some of the company’s members.
“If you think of that population, they statistically live off $1,000 a month. They are not used to getting this experience delivered to their door,” she said. “They are not used to that experience, and it comes co-branded from their health plan. They feel like Molina cares about me and my health.”
Members got the first box of produce and then, to get the second one, they had to complete a health risk assessment. Tyrner said Molina saw a 95% rate of adoption with that health reimbursement arrangement.
The third box called for the member to get the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine.
“What Molina found out in this program was that it wasn’t just the next box coming to their door the member was so enticed with,” Tyrner said. “This box became the trust currency for Molina to speak to their member to get them to take a self-efficacy journey where Molina needed to move the quality improvement needle.”
She added that members would call in and say they can’t get to the pharmacy for the vaccine, and Molina would respond they have transportation benefits and arrange a ride.
“They didn’t know they had these benefits available to them,” she said.
Another key benefit has been to give members information on how to cook or use the produce, including adding easy-to-use recipes.
“Sending out a produce box is great, but if you are not going to educate that membership on what to do around their chronic condition then you might as well send no food box,” Tyrner said.
The remarks come as health plans in Medicare Advantage (MA) have steadily increased their food delivery benefits thanks to enhanced flexibility from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). An analysis from the Better Medicare Alliance found that 69% of 2022 MA plans offered a meal benefit to seniors.
Addressing food insecurity is likely to also become of increasing importance to MA plans as CMS prioritizes improving health equity. CMS announced in the proposed MA and Part D advance rate notice that it is examining how to address health equity via new quality measures that count toward a plan’s star ratings.