Medical Home Network (MHN), a company that partners with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), announced a collaboration with grocery technology company Instacart to embed Instacart’s SNAP eligibility screener on MHN’s managed care platform, MHNConnect.
The capability will give care teams at the 80-plus FQHCs that MHN partners with a tool within their workflows to decide SNAP eligibility, expedite enrollment and explain to patients how to use benefits through Instacart.
The alliance is an addition of an existing partnership between Instacart and Wellness West, a coalition of health and safety-net institutions, of which MHN is a founding member.
“By embedding the Instacart screener directly into MHNConnect, we aim to support care coordinators at FQHCs across the country in their extraordinary efforts to identify patients who are eligible for additional food assistance and ensure they have access to healthy food,” Cheryl Lulias, president and CEO, Medical Home Network, said in a statement.
Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of Instacart Health, said that Instacart is dedicated to breaking down barriers to acquiring healthy and nutritious food through delivery to over 98% of U.S. households and via payment methods like EBT SNAP.
“We are proud to partner with an organization like MHN that shares our vision. With this new tool, MHN can better support frontline healthcare workers in connecting individuals eligible for SNAP benefits, enabling them to use SNAP to the fullest,” Mastrorocco said in a statement.
THE LARGER TREND
In February, Medical Home Network partnered with 64 FQHCs in seven states to participate in two Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) value-based programs: Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) and Multipurpose Senior Services Program (MSSP).
ACO REACH provides novel tools and resources for healthcare providers to work together in an ACO to improve the quality of care for people with traditional Medicare.
MSSP provides social and healthcare management services to assist people so they can remain in their own homes and communities.
In January, DispatchHealth, an in-home care provider, announced a partnership with Instacart to provide Dispatch’s in-home care professionals with tools to prescribe food to patients using Instacart Health.
Through the partnership, Dispatch’s in-home providers can prescribe food interventions for patients via Instacart Health.
In 2023, Instacart launched a new benefit in partnership with Mount Sinai Solutions, a division of Mount Sinai Health System that offered health plans to employers and unions, to provide postpartum and postoperative patients access to grocery deliveries and Mount Sinai’s Virtual Storefront.
That same year, Instacart added new digital tools for providers to its health division. Instacart Health includes virtual storefronts, shoppable recipes and lists for nutrition.
Through Virtual Storefronts, providers can create a curated shop for their patients, with food recommendations. Patients can shop their provider’s recommendations in the app and have the ingredients delivered through Instacart.
