What's happening
This bill adds Medicaid coverage for medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy for individuals with chronic conditions in New York.
Why it matters
Addresses food as medicine. By covering medically tailored meals and nutrition therapy, the bill recognizes the role that specialized nutrition can play in managing chronic diseases, potentially reducing hospitalizations and healthcare costs.
Targets individuals with daily living limitations. The coverage is specifically for people whose chronic conditions limit their daily activities, aiming to improve their quality of life and ability to manage their health at home.
Requires professional oversight and federal funding. Meals and nutrition therapy must be ordered by qualified health professionals and delivered by certified dietitians or nutritionists, ensuring appropriate, evidence-based care. Implementation is also contingent on receiving federal financial participation, which affects state budget impact and program sustainability.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Cover Medically Tailored Meals
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to health
- Print number 3458a
- Amend and recommit to finance
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to health
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Cover Medically Tailored Meals
In Assembly Committee · Ways And Means · Sponsor Richard Gottfried
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3458--A
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 7, 2019
Introduced by Sen. RIVERA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health -- reported favorably from said committee and committed to the Committee on Finance -committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to medical assistance coverage for medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy for the purpose of disease management
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 365-a of the social services law is amended by adding a new paragraph (ff) to read as follows:
(ff) medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy. As used in this paragraph, "medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy" means nutritional assessment, nutritional therapy, and nutritional counseling provided by a certified dietician or certified nutritionist, including the provision of any food indicated by the nutritional assessment and the delivery of such food, ordered by a health care professional acting within his or her lawful scope of practice under title eight of the education law, for the purpose of treating one or more chronic conditions for an individual who is limited in his or her activities of daily living; and provided that there is federal financial participation in the costs of services provided under this paragraph.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the commissioner of health shall adopt regulations and take other actions reasonably necessary to implement this act on that date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03807-05-9
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to medical assistance coverage for medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy for the purpose of disease management
Purpose
To provide medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy by a Certified dietitian or certified nutritionist for the purpose of disease management.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1: Creates a new PHL 365-a (ff) providing Medicaid coverage of medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy for individuals limited in activities of daily living by one or more chronic conditions.
Section 2: Determines the bill shall take effect one hundred eighty days after it shall have become law.
Justification
Appropriate food and nutrition are critical to management of chronic illness. Maintaining immune function, increasing absorption of medica- tions, and maintaining healthy body weight can help manage costly diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, COPD, HIV/AIDS, and cancer.
Food and nutrition services include medical nutritional therapy and the medically tailored food that accompanies it. Medical nutrition therapy involves diagnostic therapy and counseling on disease management by a certified dietitian or certified nutritionist, and medically tailored meals indicated by such therapy including home-delivered meals.
Lack of adequate nutrition is a significant predictor of hospitaliza- tion, re-hospitalization, and increased length of hospital stay. In a study in Clinical Nutrition, malnutrition was evident in up to one-third of inpatients and led to poor hospitalization outcomes and survival and increased cost of care. Hospital stays were 50% longer in malnourished patients, who were also nearly twice as likely to be readmitted within fifteen days. The average inpatient hospitalization cost for malnour- ished patients was 24% higher than average, and nutrition-specific Diag- nosis Related Groups (DRGs) are among the top ten reasons that Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted to the hospital.
A study by MANNA, a Philadelphia food and nutrition services agency, compared health care costs of MANNA clients to a control group. The results showed that on the MANNA program, clients' average monthly healthcare costs fell 62% for first three months that they received food and nutritional services; 60% for HIV/AIDS patients. If hospitalized, MANNA's clients had 30% lower than the control group's hospitalization costs, 37% shorter stays, and 20% higher discharges to the home rather than an institution.
Compared to the cost of hospitalizations or institutionalizations, food and nutritional services are inexpensive. A person can receive a home- delivered diet tailored to their unique medical circumstances for $20 per day, compared to several thousand dollars a day for a hospital bed in other words, preventing one day of hospitalization covers the cost of half a year of medically tailored meals.
Prior legislative history
2018: A9863 Gottfried 2019: New Bill
Fiscal implications
This measure would provide a cost-savings in reduced hospitalizations and institutionalizations.
Effective date
One hundred eighty days after it shall have become law
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.