Your Rx: Buy broccoli. Call in morning.
Docs now prescribe healthy food along with medicine
WASHINGTON — Adrienne Dove pulled up to the checkout line of the Giant grocery store in Washington with a cart filled with cabbage, bananas and bagged string beans.
The register rang $20.60. Instead of cash or card, Dove paid with a Produce Rx voucher from the store pharmacy.
The Giant in the most impoverished part of the District of Columbia is the latest frontier in the “food as medicine” movement.
Hospitals and local governments nationwide have been writing and filling prescriptions for healthy food in an attempt to address the root causes of diabetes, hypertension and other costly illnesses. The federal farm bill passed late last year included more than $4 million in grants for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute to governments that run prescription produce programs, but the money has not yet been distributed.
The goal, backed by some research, is to improve health and reduce costs by subsidizing fresh produce such as broccoli and grapefruit in addition to insulin and beta blockers.
“What we are hoping to find is there is a return on investment for the healthcare system: a reduction in ER visits, medication compliance,” said Lauren Shweder Biel, executive director of DC Greens, a nonprofit group that is managing the District’s Produce Rx pilot. “That’s the holy grail for systems like this.”
Improved diet is also a target.
“I was trying to manage my patients’ diabetes and high blood pressure, but when they were telling me they were eating Top Ramen, doughnuts and bagels because it keeps them full, all I could say was ‘That’s too bad, here’s some more drugs,’ ” said Rita Nguyen of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, who oversees an expanding produce prescription program at six clinics.
In the nation’s capital, the Produce Rx program started last month and provides 500 Medicaid patients $20 weekly vouchers for produce at the Giant in Ward 8 through the end of the year.
Ward 8 is the poorest, sickest part of the city and has the highest rates of death for diabetes and heart disease. The Giant is the only full-service grocery store.
The Produce Rx program, which includes the costs of vouchers and evaluating patient outcomes, has received $500,000 from the District government and about $150,000 from AmeriHealth Caritas, a Medicaidmanaged care organization. AmeriHealth Caritas patients are the only ones now eligible for the Produce Rx pilot. DC Greens is seeking additional funding from the USDA to expand the program.
Council member Mary Cheh is urging lawmakers to increase the sales tax on sweetened beverages by 1% to create a permanent revenue source for the Produce Rx initiative, among other programs.
Dove, 43, found out about the program while at a health clinic for a check on the state of her hypertension and anemia.
Medical professionals often urge Dove to eat better, but she was surprised when a clinic official called the grocery store pharmacy to secure produce vouchers for her the same way doctors would call in a prescription for drugs.
“I was just mainly eating fried chicken wings and french fries. I grew up on McDonald’s and I got high blood pressure,” said Dove, who lives with her mother and two children near the grocery store. “Now I tell my son, ‘don’t be like Mommy,’ and he asks for broccoli and spinach.”
In 2001, Boston Medical Center launched one of the first food pharmacies with its preventive food pantry in the basement of the safety net hospital, which treats patients regardless of their ability to pay.
In San Francisco, health officials found that patients were more likely to pick up food from weekly events at neighborhood clinics than at the public hospital. At the clinics, patients can choose their own meats, whole grains and vegetables, as well as watch cooking demonstrations by nutritionists — who sometimes give out cutting boards and knives.
Nguyen, the San Francisco health official, said proponents of food as medicine are still trying to figure out the best way to set up such programs.
“We don’t know what dose of food is enough to make a difference,” Nguyen said. “Is food by itself enough? Or do you need the nutritionist, do you need the cooking supplies, the recipes?”
In Pennsylvania, the Fresh Food Farmacy initiative by regional health insurer and provider Geisinger provides produce, cooking demonstrations and diabetes management lessons to 700 patients in the northeast and central parts of the state.
In the first two years of the program, officials found that diabetics who received food saw their blood sugar levels decline, as opposed to those who were not given any.
Allison Hess, a Geisinger executive, said the Fresh Food Farmacy costs about $3,500 per family annually, and drops in blood sugar would result in greater savings from less medication.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Hess said. “We are going to either pay for this medical expense or pay for this food and education that’s going to be more of a lifelong benefit.”
The District’s approach differs still. Instead of a new pantry or offering food at the doctor’s office, the city nudges residents to buy fruits and vegetables at a grocery store as part of their weekly routines.
City health officials said that earlier efforts to connect residents in food deserts to produce at corner stores ran into trouble because the retailers couldn’t always find enough customers. The Produce Rx program builds on a more limited subsidy program that already exists at farmers markets.