Instacart SNAP Screener Helps Address Food Insecurity
Instacart has teamed up with Medical Home Network (MHN), which enables federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) across the United States to provide value-based care, to embed Instacart’s new SNAP eligibility screener in the MHNConnect care management platform. The aim of this move is to give care teams at MHN’s 80-plus partner FQHCs a tool within their current workflows to determine SNAP eligibility, facilitate enrollment and show patients how to use benefits via Instacart. FQHCs serve one in 11 Americans, among them millions living in low-income households facing food insecurity.
“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,” noted Cheryl Lulias, president and CEO of Chicago-based MHN.
[RELATED: SNAP Shoppers Spend 32% More Than Non-SNAP Shoppers]
The collaboration is an extension of an existing partnership between Instacart and Wellness West, a Chicago-based coalition of health and safety-net institutions, of which MHN is a founding member.
“Instacart is committed to breaking down barriers to accessing healthy and nutritious food via delivery to over 98% of U.S. households and via payment methods like EBT SNAP,” noted Sarah Mastrorocco, Instacart Health’s VP and general manager. “We are proud to partner with an organization like Medical Home Network (MHN) that shares our vision. With this new tool, MHN can better support front-line health care workers in connecting individuals eligible for SNAP benefits, enabling them to use SNAP to the fullest.”
“As the nation’s largest primary care network serving 32.5 million people nationwide, community health centers (CHCs) are committed to addressing food insecurity beyond the exam room walls,” said Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, president and CEO of Bethesda, Md.-based National Association of Community Health Centers. “Food insecurity is a significant barrier to managing individual health and well-being, and America’s CHCs are committed to ensuring that healthy food options are convenient and accessible to everyone, no matter where they live. As we enter the holiday season and winter months, this work becomes even more critical. We are deeply grateful for our collaboration with Instacart and Medical Home Network to make this SNAP tool available to CHC care teams. We believe all CHCs will benefit from this program.”
San Francisco-based Instacart partners with more than 1,500 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from 85,000-plus stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Through Instacart Health, the company provides tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.
