MetroPlus Health Plan

In a state as large as New York, a steady stream of smart, innovative work is coming from NYHealth grantees and non-grantees alike that is relevant to NYHealth’s priority areas of Building Healthy Communities and Empowering Health Care Consumers and its focus area on Veterans’ Health. These organizations should be elevating their work and informing key stakeholders at regional, statewide, and national conferences, meetings, and other convenings. Yet, because of a lack of resources, they are often unable to do so. To address this issue, NYHealth is awarding grants through its Sponsoring Conference Participation in Support of Healthy Communities, Consumer Empowerment, and Veterans’ Health Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP, NYHealth is sponsoring low-resource organizations to attend and present at local, State, and national conferences related to these areas. In 2019, NYHealth awarded MetroPlus Health Plan (MPHP) a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to build healthier communities.

Under this grant, MPHP sent one employee to attend the Closing the Hunger Gap Conference. This conference addressed how systematic inequities, such as health disparities and food scarcity, are directly related to the health of communities. Attendees learned about best practices for incorporating food security screening, resources, and follow-up into routine patient care. In addition, they learned strategies for sustainable collaborations among community-based organizations, patients, and health care providers through workshops on nutrition, disease management, and mindfulness. By attending this event, MPHP gained valuable knowledge to help it better implement its novel food prescription program, Get F.R.E.S.H. (Food, Resources, Education, Support, Healthy).

View a complete list of conference participation grantees.