Medicare to test free nutrition services for chronic disease patients
H.R. 8355 — Accountable Produce is Medicine Act of 2026 · Filed by Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires Medicare and Medicaid to test a new payment model that covers medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, nutrition counseling, and related health services for patients with chronic diseases in underserved areas. The model will bundle these food-and-nutrition services with medical care, paying providers a fixed amount to deliver both, and will track whether this approach reduces health care costs and improves outcomes over a 5-year test period.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a Medicare/Medicaid innovation test of bundled payment for food-and-nutrition interventions targeting chronic disease. It is a public health pilot, not a tax measure, appropriation, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The bill grants the Secretary broad discretion to define 'eligible individuals,' 'appropriate' chronic conditions, 'substantially similar' services, and payment amounts—creating implementation risk and potential for narrow or broad coverage depending on regulatory interpretation.
- Disenrollment provisions allow programs to terminate individuals for 'inadequate engagement' or non-adherence, potentially excluding the most vulnerable or least health-literate patients who might benefit most.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
food-and-nutrition service providers (meal delivery, produce suppliers); telehealth platforms and remote monitoring device manufacturers; health care providers and accountable care organizations managing bundled payments