Written by Mo Farrell, LMSW, manager, Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research, Institute for Public Health
The United States spends more money on health care than any other high-income country, yet this year, compared with nine other high-income nations, the U.S. ranked last in health – with a lower life expectancy and higher rates of death and disease. In a special seminar co-sponsored by the Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research, the Healthcare Innovation Lab, and the Nutrition Optimization and Utilization for Realizing Improved Health interest group, Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD of the University of Pennsylvania argued that a cost-effective way for the health system to improve outcomes would be to systematically increase healthy food access for high-risk patients.
More than 60 people attended Volpp’s recent seminar to hear about the American Heart Association’s food is medicine initiative, Health Care by Food, of which he is the scientific lead. The initiative recognizes that food is central to health outcomes, but due to lack of affordability and accessibility to healthy foods, Americans in large part, do not have very healthy diets.
Volpp and his team are building evidence on the cost effectiveness of different food programs for patients with health conditions, such as medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and healthy food prescription programs. Preliminary evidence suggests that delivering food is medicine programs may improve health outcomes, reduce health care utilization and costs, address health disparities and reduce nutrition and food insecurity for high-risk patients. Volpp’s seminar was followed by Medicine Grand Rounds titled, “Using Behavioral Economics to Improve Health”.
Volpp is the founding director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics and the Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor at Perelman School of Medicine and Health Care Management at the Wharton School. His work focuses on developing and testing innovative ways of applying insights from behavioral economics in improving patient health behavior and affecting provider performance. His work includes a variety of employers, insurers, health systems, and consumer companies in testing the effectiveness of different behavioral economic strategies in addressing tobacco dependence, obesity, and medication non-adherence.