Hy-Vee, Inc. contributed to Milken Institute’s Catalyzing Action for Pharmacist-Provided Food Is Medicine Care report. How has your involvement with the Milken Institute shaped your work related to Food Is Medicine? 

Hy-Vee, Inc., is an employee-owned corporation operating more than 570 business units across the Midwest with 75,000 employees. Hy-Vee’s involvement with the Milken Institute has helped solidify our approach to utilize our pharmacies as the cornerstone of our Food Is Medicine program, which is focused on addressing food insecurity and improving chronic disease. Our strategy includes leveraging our trusted pharmacists to tie our dietitian program, healthy groceries, and our ability to measure and improve health outcomes into a seamless and reimbursable program.

Not only did the Milken Institute’s report support and provide credibility to our current strategies, it also led Hy-Vee to find new and innovative programs to enhance our offerings. Following the Food Is Medicine framework outlined by the Milken Institute, Hy-Vee has begun new programs to train our pharmacy staff as community health workers, further expanding access through existing reimbursement options. 

Provider status for pharmacists and the ability to be recognized as providers for reimbursement across Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers is crucial to a successful Food Is Medicine program, as it is the mechanism for a sustainable model that can be scaled. The Catalyzing Action for Pharmacist-Provided Food Is Medicine Care report helps emphasize this message as we work together to advocate for this change.

What do you see as the role of the employer in supporting employee health and wellness?

As an employer, we have an obligation to offer programs that help our employees improve and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Not only does this increase productivity, lower health-care costs, and decrease absenteeism, but it also improves retention and makes employees happier. It is our obligation to have programs focused on chronic disease treatment and prevention. This is why Hy-Vee’s benefit plan is implementing a pilot Food Is Medicine program for employees as a stepping stone to a wide-scale launch.

How does technology and innovation facilitate and support Food Is Medicine-related interventions?

Technology is vital to scaling and maintaining a Food Is Medicine program. Without technology advancements that provide data interoperability, reimbursement pathways, and seamless integration into pharmacy workflow, the impact of a pharmacist-provided Food Is Medicine program becomes minimized.

Hy-Vee is utilizing technology to analyze data, providing population health outcomes-based reports, personalized patient recommendations, and unique patient interventions that enhance workflow.

Most importantly, pharmacists are often missing important elements in the medical history of a patient. Improving bidirectional data interoperability across the health-care ecosystem is necessary to maximize patient outcomes. At Hy-Vee, our very first initiative to expand data interoperability is our longitudinal view of a patient that will allow our clinicians (dietitians and pharmacists) the ability to have a comprehensive view of interventions across a patient in the Hy-Vee health ecosystem.

Technology is another way to enhance patient interactions and provide scale to an overall program. During COVID, Hy-Vee launched virtual dietitian services to continue to reach our patients throughout the pandemic. This launch allowed for exponential growth in dietitian outreach and appointments (topping 60,000 appointments in FY2023) without an expansion in the workforce. In 2024, our virtual services remain a useful tool and are integral to our Food Is Medicine offerings.

Share with us your vision for the integration of health care and food retail.

One area of focus is making every encounter with our customers and patients matter. We know individuals on a health journey benefit from little nudges encouraging or rewarding them to make better health choices. This includes using technology to remind a patient at the pharmacy counter that they have access to a healthy food benefit or encouraging a patient who is in the store receiving a healthy food benefit to stop by our pharmacy for a blood pressure check. These technological nudges encourage our patients to stay engaged in their health.  

It is very important for us to have solutions that meet a patient no matter where they are in their health journey. We need to be able to offer meaningful food options, from medically tailored meals and medically tailored groceries to the ability for a patient to make a better-for-you swap to a better option for their grocery cart.

Hy-Vee’s vision and commitment to improve the health and wellness of the communities we serve began over 50 years ago in pharmacy and over 20 years ago with our in-store dietitian program. With our unique presence in both rural and diverse communities, we are fully committed to improving the outcomes of our patients by building on our Food Is Medicine framework and leveraging the learnings of the Milken Institute’s report to revolutionize and expand our offerings into the future.