Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Title: How Blue Cross NC Is Scaling Food as Medicine to Improve Health and Lower Costs
Date: October 20, 2025
Host: Jacob Emerson (Becker's Healthcare)
Guest: Colleen Briggs (President, Blue Cross NC Foundation & VP, Corporate Responsibility, Blue Cross NC)

This episode centers on the "Feed Your Health" initiative at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC), which integrates food as medicine into standard care, aiming to improve chronic disease outcomes, lower healthcare costs, and address social determinants like food insecurity. Colleen Briggs provides an inside look at how the initiative works, operational and financial strategies for scaling, barriers faced by payers, and the outlook for food-based interventions in commercial plans.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Colleen Briggs’ Role and Blue Cross NC’s Approach

• Background: Briggs has policy, corporate, and philanthropic experience and joined Blue Cross NC to lead corporate social responsibility, emphasizing measurable outcomes and community engagement.
• Quote:

  "Really making sure that we're building solutions that reflect their voice... partnerships that really help drive measurable outcomes that are improving the health and well being of our members and our communities."
  — Colleen Briggs [00:41]

2. Overview of the "Feed Your Health" Initiative

• High-Touch, Personalized Approach:
  • Targets members with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.
  • Offers medically tailored meals, culturally relevant groceries, and one-on-one nutrition coaching at no cost.
• Quote:

  "Feed your Health is really a high touch personalized approach to managing uncontrolled type 2 diabetes."
  — Colleen Briggs [01:29]

3. Clinical Results & ROI

• Health Outcomes:
  • 1.5 point reduction in A1C over 16 weeks for participants.
  • Improvements in overall well-being, food insecurity, BMI, mental and physical health.
• Financial Impact:
  • $139 reduction per member per month in medical costs.
• Long-term Value:
  • Helps avoid costly complications and ER visits.
  • Drives affordability for members and the system.
• Quote:

  "Our own research shows that these pilots can show a reduction of $139 per member per month in total medical costs."
  — Colleen Briggs [02:27]

4. Scaling Food as Medicine: Success Factors & Barriers

• Success Factors:
  • Deliberate program design with clinical teams, food vendors, and communities.
  • Specific eligibility (adults with A1C ≥ 8).
  • Statewide engagement by touring all 100 counties for feedback.
• Key Barriers:
  1. Reimbursement Models: Lack of standardized reimbursement for nutrition interventions.
  2. Limited Data: Need for robust, longitudinal ROI and outcomes data.
  3. Operational Complexity: Coordination across multiple stakeholders; use of local, culturally relevant partners.
  4. Member Engagement: Behavioral change is challenging; interventions need to be actionable, timely, ongoing, and culturally relevant.
• Quotes:

  "Poor nutrition is at the top of the list of drivers of poor health outcomes."
  — Colleen Briggs [04:46]
  "Behavior change is hard, and some members might resist dietary changes, especially if it feels like programs are prescriptive."
  — Colleen Briggs [06:50]

5. Integration into Broader Benefits Strategy and Policy

• Role in Employer Plans:
  • Viewed as essential for chronic disease management.
  • High demand among commercially insured members: ~50% with diabetes also have food insecurity.
• Emerging Solutions:
  • Diseases management pathways in commercial markets.
• Policy & Systemic Change Needed:
  • Insurers should lead not just through funding, but by removing systemic barriers and building infrastructure.
  • Policymakers seen as important partners for adoption and scalability.
• Quotes:

  "Food based interventions will become a core part of addressing chronic conditions... Clearly, the demand is there."
  — Colleen Briggs [08:28]
  "I do think that we should see a role that insurers have to really lead, not just by funding, but... how can we remove those barriers from our side?"
  — Colleen Briggs [09:28]

6. Final Thoughts & Advice to Other Health Plan Leaders

• Shift to Prevention: From reactive, acute care to proactive, whole-person wellness.
• Holistic, Multi-pronged Approach: The “Health Through Food Initiative” addresses food access, member education, and clinical integration.
• Collaboration is Key: Insurers, providers, employers, and communities must work together to address root causes and drive system-wide affordability.
• Quotes:

  "By investing in this kind of preventative whole person care, we can continue the shift from just reactive treatment to really proactive wellness and ultimately help the people we serve not just get healthy, but really stay healthy."
  — Colleen Briggs [11:05]
  "If we do it together, we can really start to move the needle and show how investing in non medical approaches... can ease the burden on our healthcare system."
  — Colleen Briggs [11:38]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Root Cause Approach:

  "Our healthcare system really excels at treating acute medical issues and managing symptoms. But I think what we're seeing is just this opportunity for insurers, providers, employers and community leaders to really come together and collaborate to address some of the root causes of poor health."
  — Colleen Briggs [10:50]

• On Scalability & Building Ecosystems:

  "We're moving beyond pilots to really building out these statewide and national level ecosystems that really make food a core part of treatment."
  — Colleen Briggs [09:58]

• On Member Engagement and Behavior Change:

  "It can't just be one moment in time. We know that behavior change takes time to really lead to that lasting outcomes that we want to see."
  — Colleen Briggs [07:20]

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:31 — Colleen Briggs’ background and corporate responsibility at Blue Cross NC
• 01:29 — "Feed Your Health" overview
• 02:17 — Clinical and financial impact of the program
• 04:03 — Scaling efforts, barriers, and success factors
• 08:23 — Food-based interventions in broader benefits strategy & role of policy
• 10:50 — Final advice to other plans: Prevention, collaboration, and root cause focus

Conclusion

This episode provides a comprehensive exploration of how and why Blue Cross NC is championing “food as medicine.” The Feed Your Health initiative is proving that targeted, scalable nutrition interventions can improve chronic disease management, lower costs, and address social determinants of health. Despite operational and systemic challenges, Colleen Briggs advocates for a holistic, collaborative approach and urges healthcare leaders and policymakers to prioritize and mainstream food-based interventions in pursuit of healthier, more affordable outcomes for all.