CMS announces hospital food pledge

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services leaders today announced a voluntary pledge that hospitals can sign related to their efforts on healthy food. 

Among other items, the pledge asks hospitals — as clinically appropriate and feasible — to align patient food services with the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans; work to ensure inpatient meals meet individual nutritional needs and support healing, recovery and long-term health; and provide accessible nutrition resources and education as part of discharge planning to help patients sustain healthy habits. 

CMS leaders called on hospitals to sign the pledge today at the AHA Annual Membership Meeting. During the event, AHA Chair Marc Boom, M.D., CEO of Houston Methodist; AHA Immediate Past Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health; and AHA Chair-elect Bill Gassen, president and CEO of Sanford Health, said their health systems would support the pledge. 

In a statement, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said, “The AHA supports the Administration’s continued focus on meeting patients’ nutritional needs that promotes healing, recovery and patient health. Hospitals across the country work closely with registered dieticians and clinical staff to provide patients with high‑quality, nutritious meals that embrace the notion that ‘food is medicine.’ We are committed to helping hospitals — as clinically appropriate and feasible — ensure that patients have access to nourishing meals, including by sharing this voluntary pledge with the hospital field and encouraging them to review it and give it serious consideration.”