The Food Is Medicine Advocacy Toolkit

• Listen to the webinar
• View the PPT slides

Monday, October 19, 2015      2:00PM-3:30PM EST

Presenters:

• Sarah Downer, Clinical Instructor, Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School
• Karen Pearl, President & CEO, God’s Love We Deliver

Join presenters from God’s Love We Deliver and the Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School to learn how you can translate the concept of food as medicine into a reality for your organization and the clients you serve.

Across the country, the evolving healthcare landscape is creating new opportunities for integration of food and nutrition services (FNS) into our healthcare systems. Specifically, recent changes have created new opportunities for FNS providers to obtain reimbursement from both public and private insurers and integrate their innovative services into a variety of healthcare delivery models. A growing body of research demonstrates that FNS are cost-effective health interventions that improve health outcomes among beneficiaries and patients with significant health needs. As a result, insurers and medical providers (such as physicians and hospitals), are recognizing the enormous potential of providing insurance coverage of FNS. However, increased interest in FNS from public and private insurers, hospitals and other healthcare entities is often slow to translate into partnerships and contracts for services without sustained effort on the part of FNS providers. FNS providers therefore have important roles to play in creating partnerships with providers, educating healthcare entities about the efficacy of their services, and advocating for policies that allow and/or require healthcare dollars to be spent on FNS.

This toolkit is designed to support the efforts of FNS providers by providing practical guidance on how to identify and take advantage of opportunities for acquiring new funding streams from health insurance systems and their associated delivery models and programs. Whether your service is currently reimbursable or not, this toolkit will help you lay the groundwork to accomplish that goal.

• Listen to the webinar
• View the PPT slides