Medically Tailored Home-Delivered Meals Program Pilot Act
Sponsored By: Representative McGovern
Introduced
Summary
Creates a Medicare Part A test that pays selected hospitals to provide medically tailored home-delivered meals and nutrition therapy to high‑risk patients to try to improve health and cut readmissions. The program runs for 6 years and focuses on hospital-led screening, meals, and outcome reporting.
Show full summary
- Patients and families: Qualified Medicare Part A beneficiaries can receive at least 2 medically tailored home‑delivered meals per day for an initial 12‑week period and medical nutrition therapy for 12 weeks up to 1 year, with meals meeting about two‑thirds of daily needs and no deductible or cost sharing.
- Hospitals and clinicians: The Secretary will select at least 40 hospitals that meet quality and integrity criteria. Selected hospitals must screen at discharge, staff dietitians and clinicians to deliver care, provide ongoing re‑screening every 12 weeks, and submit data to CMS.
- Medicare program and evaluation: The Secretary sets payment amounts and will run intermediate and final evaluations comparing admissions, Part A costs, and patient experiences and must report at roughly 3 and 8 years after implementation.
*Program payments come from the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and are offset by equal reductions in certain inpatient hospital payments, making the demonstration budget neutral within Medicare Part A.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 2 mixed.
Medicare meals pilot for high-risk patients
This bill would start a Medicare pilot for home-delivered, medically tailored meals. The Secretary would pick at least 40 hospitals by June 30, 2027, start within 30 months of enactment, and run it for 6 years. If you qualify, you would get at least two meals a day that meet two-thirds of your daily nutrition and match your medical and cultural needs. Meals would last at least 12 weeks after screening, and could continue in 12-week periods after re-screening. You would also get medical nutrition therapy for at least 12 weeks and up to 1 year. There would be no Medicare deductibles, copays, or coinsurance for these meals and services. To qualify, you must have Medicare Part A, have a diet-affected disease (like kidney disease, heart failure, diabetes, or COPD), live at home at discharge, not be in extended care or hospice, be limited in at least two daily activities, and not get similar help from other programs.
Hospital rules and reports for pilot
Hospitals would need to apply and attest they can provide services to join the pilot. Subsection (d) hospitals would need an average of at least 3 stars for the past two fiscal years and must meet integrity rules. Selected hospitals would screen patients at discharge with validated tools and re-screen every 12 weeks. They would staff clinicians (such as a physician, dietitian, advanced practice nurse, or clinical social worker) to handle screening and nutrition therapy. Hospitals would submit data, and the Secretary would report results to Congress within 3 years of implementation and a final report within 8 years.
How Medicare would fund the pilot
Payments for the pilot would come from Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (Part A) Trust Fund. The Secretary would decide how and how much to pay participating hospitals, considering what other payers pay for similar services. To offset costs, the Secretary would reduce subsection (d) hospital payments each year by an amount estimated to equal that year’s pilot payments.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
McGovern
MA • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Malliotakis, Nicole [R-NY-11]
NY • R
Sponsored 9/17/2025
Pingree
ME • D
Sponsored 9/17/2025
Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1]
PA • R
Sponsored 9/17/2025
Rep. Evans, Dwight [D-PA-3]
PA • D
Sponsored 9/17/2025
Sewell
AL • D
Sponsored 10/3/2025
Rep. Moore, Gwen [D-WI-4]
WI • D
Sponsored 10/3/2025
Rep. Goldman, Daniel S. [D-NY-10]
NY • D
Sponsored 10/10/2025
Kennedy (NY)
NY • D
Sponsored 10/10/2025
Rep. Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-9]
NY • D
Sponsored 10/31/2025
Rep. Lynch, Stephen F. [D-MA-8]
MA • D
Sponsored 10/31/2025
Rep. Kamlager-Dove, Sydney [D-CA-37]
CA • D
Sponsored 11/18/2025
Rep. Tlaib, Rashida [D-MI-12]
MI • D
Sponsored 11/18/2025
DelBene
WA • D
Sponsored 11/18/2025
Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie [D-NJ-12]
NJ • D
Sponsored 11/19/2025
Rep. Moulton, Seth [D-MA-6]
MA • D
Sponsored 11/20/2025
Rep. Lieu, Ted [D-CA-36]
CA • D
Sponsored 11/20/2025
Carson
IN • D
Sponsored 12/1/2025
Rep. Matsui, Doris O. [D-CA-7]
CA • D
Sponsored 12/1/2025
McCollum
MN • D
Sponsored 12/1/2025
Thompson (CA)
CA • D
Sponsored 12/15/2025
Rep. Garbarino, Andrew R. [R-NY-2]
NY • R
Sponsored 12/15/2025
Rep. Raskin, Jamie [D-MD-8]
MD • D
Sponsored 2/2/2026
Cohen
TN • D
Sponsored 3/12/2026
Rep. Davids, Sharice [D-KS-3]
KS • D
Sponsored 4/27/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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