A new partnership between Instacart and DispatchHealth could help the grocery technology company move deeper into healthcare.
The companies announced a collaboration Tuesday that will allow DispatchHealth’s in-home healthcare providers to prescribe food interventions using Instacart’s platform. DispatchHealth emergency medical technicians, nurses and nurse practitioners will be able to distribute food stipends to patients for use to order nutritious food delivered to their doors.
Related: Instacart pushing into food-as-medicine movement with partnerships
The collaboration, which began this week, will initially focus on high-acuity patients participating in DispatchHealth’s hospital-at-home programs. It could expand later to other patients, a DispatchHealth spokesperson said.
Patients can pay for the service through health insurance flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, Medicare Advantage plans and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The collaboration gives Instacart a larger market to expand Instacart Health, the health and wellness initiative the San Francisco-based company launched in 2022. It is also Instacart's second venture with an in-home healthcare provider. The company has a partnership with Medically Home, a Boston-based company that provides technology platforms to hospital systems to deliver acute care at home.
DispatchHealth partners with health insurers and healthcare providers to deliver urgent, in-home care to patients across 30 states. The Denver-based company also has partnerships with home health companies such as Elara Caring, Enhabit and Home Instead to provide hospital-at-home services.
Last fall, Instacart inked a deal with New York-based Mount Sinai Health Solutions to provide groceries as a benefit to employees following hospitalization or surgery.
The collaborations help Instacart Health cash in on the growing food-as-medicine movement. Fresh food and produce have been growing in popularity as a supplemental benefit offered by Medicare Advantage plans. This year, 1,475 of the private insurance plans for older adults are offering the benefit, up from 1,231 in 2023, according to healthcare research and consulting firm ATI Advisory.
