Food Is Medicine

Health insurance is increasingly covering food is medicine benefits for individuals with Medicare Advantage and Medicaid coverage. These benefits often include medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescriptions. Medically tailored meals are healthy, fully prepared home-delivered meals customized for individuals who are pregnant or have chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, kidney disease, HIV, and cancer. Some providers of these meals include Food For Health, Foodsmart, and Mom’s Meals.

Medically Tailored Meals

Quartz Health Solutions’ Nourishing Meals

• Medicare Advantage & D-SNP (Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan) Members – There is no cost to the member for this benefit.
  • Post-discharge benefit for Members in recovery
    • Within 48 hours of discharge from a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF), Mom’s Meals contacts the member to offer the benefit, enroll, and make their meal selections.
    • Two medically tailored, heat-and-eat meals daily for 10 days (20 meals total) are delivered within the first week after enrollment. The order is split into two boxes, each containing ten meals.
    • This benefit can be offered up to 90 days post discharge and used up to four times per year.
    • Quartz honors the post-facility discharge meal support for the VA Hospital. These individuals will need to contact the number on the back of the Quartz ID card and be referred to Mom’s Meals on an individual basis.

• • Congestive or chronic heart failure (CHF) benefit
    • Members with CHF can be referred to the program by Quartz Care Management or another Quartz Population Health program.
    • Two medically tailored, heat-and-eat meals daily for 6 weeks (84 meals total) are delivered within the first week after enrollment.
    • After six weeks of meals, members can opt-in to receive one produce, pantry, or allergy-friendly pantry box per month for a maximum of six months. There is no cost to the member for this benefit.

• Quartz BadgerCare Plus & Medicaid SSI Members – There is no cost to the member for this benefit.
  • High-risk pregnancy or high-risk postpartum (up to 12 months following birth)
    • Members who meet one or more of the following criteria are assessed by a registered dietitian and offered two meals a day for up to 12 weeks which can be split into 2- 6 week segments:
      • Be less than 18 years of age
      • Be African American
      • Be homeless
      • Have a chronic medical or behavioral health condition that will negatively impact the pregnancy
      • Had a prior poor birth outcome, defined as one or more of the following:
        • Baby born at a low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams or 5.5 pounds)         
        • Baby born preterm (gestational age less than 37 weeks)
        • Neonatal/early neonatal death (baby died within the first 28 days)
        • Stillbirth (fetal demise after 20 weeks gestation)
  • Diabetes (type 1 or 2) and/or cardiovascular disease (hypertension or CHF) who have been discharged from a hospital or SNF in the last 90 days
    • Within 48 hours of discharge from a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF), a Registered Dietitian from Mom’s Meals contacts the member to offer the benefit, enroll, and make their meal selections.
    • Two medically tailored, heat-and-eat meals daily for up to 12 weeks (up to 168 meals) are delivered within the first week after enrollment.

• ALL Quartz Members
  • ALL Quartz members have the opportunity to purchase meals as part of the Nourishing Meal Affinity Programs. Meals are offered at a discounted rate with free shipping to a physical address anywhere in the United States. Meal options are vast with many dietary preferences to choose from.
  • Unlike the nourishing meal programs above, this program is fully initiated by the member. Enroll with Mom’s Meals and use code QUARTZ.
  • Quartz will be unaware of a member’s participation as they will not receive claims.

Quartz Health Solutions partners with Mom’s Meals to offer these meal options to its members. For referrals, terminations, changes, or questions, contact Mom’s Meals Customer Care M-F 7am-6pm CST: (866)-204-6111 or orders@momsmeals.com. If members have additional questions, contact Quartz Customer Success with the phone number on the back of the member’s Quartz ID card.