Association of National Expansion of Insurance Coverage of Medically Tailored Meals With Estimated Hospitalizations and Health Care Expenditures in the US.

Importance: Medically tailored meals (MTMs) are associated with lower health care utilization among patients with complex diet-related diseases but are not a covered benefit in Medicare or Medicaid. The potential impact of extending insurance coverage for MTMs nationally remains unknown.

Objective: To estimate 1- and 10-year potential changes in annual hospitalizations, potential changes in annual health care expenditures, and overall policy cost-effectiveness associated with national MTM coverage for US patients with diet-related disease and limited instrumental activities of daily living who have Medicaid, Medicare, or private insurance.

Estimated economic burden of cancer associated with suboptimal diet in the United States.

Purpose: Suboptimal diet is a preventable cause of cancer. We aimed to estimate the economic burden of diet-associated cancer among US adults.

Methods: We used a Comparative Risk Assessment model to quantify the number of new cancer cases attributable to seven dietary factors among US adults ages 20 + years.