Case Study: Reducing 30-Day Readmissions from 43% to 8.2% with MTM at Second Harvest Central Florida
Structured Data
- Organization
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
- Population Served
- High-need post-acute patients: CHF, COPD, Type 2 Diabetes with 2+ prior admissions
- Intervention
- Medically Tailored Meal delivery, 90 days post-discharge
- Duration
- 18-month program evaluation
- Cost Per Participant
- $2,100 per participant for 90-day meal program
- Outcomes Measured
- 30-day hospital readmissions, cost per stay avoided
- Key Lessons
- Readmissions dropped from 43% to 8.2%. Average saving of $2,600 per hospital stay avoided.
Sharing our program data from Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida's Medically Tailored Meal program for high-need post-acute patients. This data was presented at the Florida Hospital Association conference last month and I wanted to open it up for peer discussion.
Methodology Note
Patients were referred by 3 partnering hospitals for CHF, COPD, and Type 2 Diabetes with 2+ prior admissions in 12 months. MTM delivery ran for 90 days post-discharge. Control group received standard discharge planning (no meals).
Discussion Question
We're seeing strong outcomes but want to understand how comparable programs are handling Medicaid billing for the post-discharge window — particularly the transition between inpatient and outpatient claims. Any billing specialists in the group?
AI Key Takeaways
AI Generated- 130-day readmissions dropped from 43% to 8.2% — a 81% relative reduction.
- 2Average cost saving of $2,600 per hospital stay avoided with a $2,100 per-participant program cost.
- 3Program targeted high-acuity patients with CHF, COPD, and T2D with 2+ prior admissions.
- 4Billing transition from inpatient to outpatient remains an open operational question for the field.
Discussion 1 comment
and create account to join the discussion.
Great Article
Thread Stats
This platform provides educational and policy discussion only and does not provide medical advice.