Food is Medicine National Summit: Transforming Health Care.

Food is Medicine (FIM) interventions reflect the critical links between food security, nutrition security, health, and health equity, integrated into health care delivery. They comprise programs that provide nutritionally tailored food, free of charge or at a discount, to support disease management, disease prevention, or optimal health, linked to the health care system as part of a patient's treatment plan. Such programs often prioritize health equity.

Reducing Hospital Readmissions: Addressing the Impact of Food Security and Nutrition.

Food insecurity in the United States is a profound public health challenge that hospitals are uniquely situated to address. Through the enactment of the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, the Affordable Care Act provides a strong economic incentive for hospitals to actively confront food insecurity within the communities they serve. While there is a spectrum of nutrition interventions that hospitals can look to when engaging in these efforts, healthy food prescriptions and medically tailored meals are two particularly innovative and promising approaches that could help hospitals reduce readmissions by addressing the nutritional needs of vulnerable patients.