Medical Home Network, Instacart Partner to Address Food Insecurity

MHN embeds Instacart SNAP Screener into care management platform, empowering 80+ health centers to proactively address food insecurity at the point of care

CHICAGO & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Medical Home Network (MHN), which enables federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) nationwide to succeed in value-based care, today announced a collaboration with Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), the leading grocery technology company in North America, to embed Instacart’s first-of-its-kind SNAP eligibility screener on MHNConnect, the company’s care management platform. This will 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, including millions from low-income households experiencing food insecurity. A lack of reliable access to nutritious food is a major social driver of health and is directly linked to increased risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, mental health issues and developmental problems in children.

“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,” said Cheryl Lulias, president and CEO, Medical Home Network.

This 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,” said Sarah Mastrorocco, Vice President and General Manager of Instacart Health. “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 frontline healthcare 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 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.”

About Medical Home Network

Medical Home Network (MHN) is dedicated to its mission to transform care in the safety net and build healthier communities. MHN partners with federally qualified health centers nationwide to support them in becoming successful value-based care providers. MHN’s model of care and approach consistently delivers leading health outcomes, savings, and quality results in value-based care arrangements. In 2024, Modern Healthcare named MHN one of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare for the fourth year in a row. Learn more at medicalhomenetwork.org and on LinkedIn.

About Instacart

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,500 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241204422651/en/

Patty Keiler

patty@collaborate.health

312-550-5394

Source: Medical Home Network