Largest-Ever Study of Medically Tailored Meals Finds 31% Reduction in Hospitalizations and Significant Cost Savings for Massachusetts Medicaid Patients

Published in Nature Medicine, the study of nearly 2,000 people receiving meals from Boston-based Community Servings shows that medically tailored meals essentially pay for themselves — and save thousands of dollars per patient with certain serious illnesses.

BOSTON, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A landmark study published today in Nature Medicine confirms that medically tailored meals (MTM), when delivered with clinical rigor adhering to a national standard, significantly reduce hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and total healthcare costs for low-income patients with serious diet-related illness — and that the savings essentially offset the cost of the meals.

The study is the largest evaluation to date of the impact of MTM authorized through a Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration program. It analyzed the claims data of nearly 2,000 Medicaid members from 2020 through 2023. All individuals received MTM prepared and delivered by Community Servings, the Boston-based nonprofit and the nation's leading nonprofit researcher of MTM.

Patients receiving Community Servings' meals experienced 31% fewer hospitalizations, 20% fewer emergency department visits, and $3,433 lower total healthcare costs over the program period compared with similar patients who did not receive meals. Healthcare savings offset 98% of the cost of the meals, making the intervention effectively cost-neutral while delivering meaningful improvements in patients' health.

The gross savings were substantially greater for populations with costly chronic conditions:

• Cardiovascular disease: $10,450 in savings per patient over six months
• Chronic kidney disease: $12,312 in savings per patient over six months
• Depression and anxiety disorders: $5,597 in savings per patient over six months
• Diabetes: $4,123 in savings per patient over six months

Massachusetts was among the first states in the nation to reimburse meal providers for MTM through Medicaid. Today, 13 states are piloting similar models through Section 1115 demonstrations, with more expected to follow.

Protecting the Integrity of MTM

Community Servings is accredited by the Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC), the national association of nonprofit MTM providers that maintains the intervention standards for the field. The designation matters: The outcomes and savings in this study reflect what is possible when food is treated as medicine — based on evidence and prepared with rigor, precision, and patient-centered care.

The meals studied were designed by registered dietitian nutritionists, tailored to fit individual diagnosis and dietary restrictions, and prepared from scratch in Community Servings' Boston kitchen. Ingredients are always whole, as well as fresh and locally sourced wherever possible.

"This study tells us something important about what works — and what doesn't," said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings and Founder of the AMPL Institute. "Medically tailored meals are a clinical intervention, not just a meal delivery. The results published today reflect the work of dietitians, chefs, and clinicians coordinating around each patient's diagnosis. As more states and health plans look at covering food as medicine, the question they should be asking isn't just whether food is on the menu — it's whether the food meets the standard that produces clinical results like these. If payors and providers turn to lower-quality interventions that don't meet the FIMC standard, patients won't see these outcomes, and the promise of food as medicine could be lost."

"What this study demonstrates is that the rigor of the intervention is absolutely vital," said Alissa Wassung, Executive Director of the Food is Medicine Coalition. "Medically tailored meals are defined by clinical standards: meals designed by registered dietitians, based on an assessment of the individual's nutrition needs, and prepared by accredited providers with deep ties to the communities they serve. As Medicaid programs across the country build nutrition into care, holding to these standards is what will determine whether food is medicine delivers on its promise."

What the Findings Mean for Medicaid and Healthcare Policy

The study's co-authors from UMass Chan Medical School and the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University analyzed Medicaid claims data for 1,866 adults receiving MTMs across 11 Accountable Care Organizations, compared with 1,372 similar adults who met the same eligibility criteria for diet-related illness and food insecurity but did not enroll in the program.

The results align with and expand upon prior studies showing that MTM reduces healthcare utilization for patients with serious illness. As the largest such study to date, the findings provide strong, real-world evidence that MTM should be incorporated as a benefit within Medicaid and Medicare for specific individuals — and that the return on investment grows with patient acuity.

The findings also underscore the urgency of testing MTMs at greater scale in Medicare, which serves nearly 69 million Americans — many of them older adults managing exactly the kinds of serious diet-related conditions where the study found the largest healthcare savings. There is currently no access to MTM in Original Medicare and conditional access in Medicare Advantage. The Medically Tailored Home-Delivered Meals Program Pilot Act (H.R. 5439 / S. 2834), introduced in the 119th Congress as a bipartisan, bicameral bill and co-led in the House by Massachusetts Rep. James McGovern, would establish a six-year Medicare pilot at 40 hospitals to test the model for Medicare beneficiaries discharged with diet-related illness. The pilot is designed to be budget neutral. The Nature Medicine findings provide immediate justification that this is exactly the kind of test Medicare should be conducting now.

"Medicaid has shown what's possible. Medicare is the next frontier," Waters said. "The patients in this study are exactly the patients Medicare serves every day, and the federal pilot in front of Congress right now is how we find out whether what worked in Massachusetts can work nationally. The evidence is there. What's needed is the will to test it at scale."

The AMPL Institute at Community Servings

Community Servings is a Boston-based nonprofit that provides home-delivered medically tailored meals and groceries to critically and chronically ill neighbors and their families across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Founded in 1990, Community Servings has delivered more than 15 million medically tailored meals to date and is a national leader in medically tailored meal research. The organization is accredited by the Food is Medicine Coalition and partners with health systems to integrate nutrition into clinical care.

The AMPL Institute at Community Servings advances access to medically tailored meals through research, policy advocacy, and provider education, including a Culinary Medicine program featured in The New York Times. The mission of the AMPL Institute is to transform the healthcare system so that medically tailored nutrition becomes a universally accessible standard of comprehensive, person-centered care. Learn more at servings.org.

About the Food is Medicine Coalition

The Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC) is the national convening coalition for nonprofit medically tailored meals and medically tailored grocery providers. FIMC advances access to these life-saving interventions through policy change, research, and best practices. FIMC agencies created the medically tailored meal intervention as a response to community need more than 40 years ago. FIMC offers a community of learning for existing practitioners, equips new organizations to launch medically tailored meal programs, and accredits agencies against our field-wide standard for MTM. FIMC is developing standards for medically tailored groceries (MTG) using our rigorous standards-making process. Learn more at www.fimcoalition.org. 

SOURCE Community Servings