Putting it all together
Below are summarized examples of successful community-based organizations' partnerships with health care, systems-level supports to make community-based organizations more competitive in Food is Medicine, and dissemination strategies that emerged across Food & Society's community-based organizations and payer interviews. Case studies presented later in the report will provide deep-dive examples and compelling stories that further elucidate many of these findings. Examples of successful community-based organization-health care partnerships in our case studies include:
Systems-level supports to make community-based organizations more competitive in Food is Medicine
- Improved data infrastructure and data standardizations
- A technology bridge that will allow community-based organizations and health care systems to “talk” to each other and better understand how they can integrate into existing systems
- Intermediary organizations between payers and community-based organizations such as community care hubs and social care networks to assist community-based organizations with contracting, referrals, and billing, to better understand how Food is Medicine billing and reimbursement operates
- Referral infrastructure and patient-facing service selection system
What is needed is an evidence base demonstrating the importance of community-based organizations in Food is Medicine systems. As for how to build that base, one set of recommendations come from the February 2024 AHIP Food is Medicine Policy includes these recommendations:
- “Federal, state, and local governments provide more consistent funding towards supporting and sustaining local community-based organizations capacity and technological infrastructure so they can more easily partner with health care and social service organizations and scale services to meet increasing demand.”
- “CMS facilitates community-based organizations' ability to partner with health care organizations and to appropriately bill for services provided.”
Partnerships between community-based organizations and healthcare, alongside federal, state, and local policies that allow for and incentivize coverage for Food is Medicine programs, are critical to the prevention, management, and treatment of diet-related chronic diseases. The case studies and workshop output highlighted in the Community Action Plan showcase the creative ways this is being done-and provide many actionable examples of how to make Food is Medicine easier, more effective, and sustainable over the long term.