The Challenge

Millions of Americans grapple with food insecurity and limited access to healthy food, driving up healthcare costs by $1,834 per food-insecure adult. These individuals also face a higher risk of chronic conditions, leading to costly acute care. While food prescriptions and vouchers have shown promise in increasing healthy food consumption, their impact is hindered by food insecurity itself. The growth of food-as-medicine has been slow in Medicaid, with most focus on Medicare Advantage and post-acute care.  Despite the logistical hurdles, there are new payment and policy opportunities to incorporate food-as-medicine within Medicaid, including value-added benefits, reimbursement for food, and contractual requirements addressing healthy food access.

The Innovation

Free from Market helps health plans and providers tackle food insecurity and its impact on Medicaid beneficiaries’ health. Users receive food prescriptions and credits to purchase non-perishable groceries from an online marketplace, allowing the healthcare system to subsidize their food expenses beyond just SNAP/WIC benefits. The platform ensures medically-vetted food products tailored to users’ chronic health conditions and delivers them nationwide. Additionally, Free from Market provides culturally-competent virtual nutrition coaching to foster long term behavior change. The platform tracks outcomes and ROI, sharing data through Electronic Health Record integration.