Food Delivery Programs May Reduce Senior Healthcare Costs

A study published in Health Affairs found seniors in the Boston area who received meals at home via programs such as Meals on Wheels made fewer visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions than those who did not, thus reducing their overall medical spending, reports Reuters . The researchers examined healthcare claims from 2014 to 2016 from the Commonwealth Care Alliance of Massachusetts, focusing on members with at least six months of enrollment in one of two meal delivery programs. They were compared to members who were similar but not participating in a meal program. Of the recipients, 133 received meals that were medically tailored for certain conditions, while 624 got untailored meals from Meals on Wheels. More than 2,300 non-meal-recipients were in the comparison cohort. The team determined people in the medically-tailored meal program had fewer emergency room visits and inpatient admissions and less emergency transportation use than the comparison group. Those in the nontailored meal program had fewer emergency visits and lower transportation use but about the same rate of inpatient admissions. In addition, those in the medically-tailored meal programs had lower medical spending, by about $570 a month, than the comparison group, while those in the nontailored meal program had about $156 in lower medical costs a month. The average monthly meal-program costs for each participant were $350 for the medically-tailored program and $146 for the nontailored program.