10/01/2026
House Energy and Commerce Committee Passage of H.R. 9393 & Medicare Advantage Reform
The National Produce Prescription Collaborative applauds the House Energy and Commerce Committee for its recent passage of new data transparency requirements for Medicare Advantage (MA) Supplemental Benefits as part of the unanimous, bipartisan vote to advance H.R. 9393 earlier this week.
Analysts estimate that total MA supplemental benefit spending is in the hundreds of millions, and perhaps billions of dollars each year; yet GAO, KFF, and other health policy analysis have reported that CMS has little reliable data on how that money is used. Nutrition benefits alone now reach around 10 million seniors, and reported benefit values vary from plan to plan with no consistent public accounting of utilization, food categories purchased, or health outcomes achieved. This is not a minor reporting gap. It’s a lack of clarity and accountability for a benefit which portends to fight diet-related chronic disease and help older Americans with chronic disease live healthier.
Congressional FIM supporters have been calling for more transparency in MA supplemental benefits for months. In September, Reps. Lloyd Smucker, John Joyce, and Vern Buchanan drafted a letter to CMS Administrator Oz which urged the agency to publish supplemental benefit utilization data and report to Congress on the type, dollar value, and use of healthy food as a special supplemental benefit.
Section 207 of this week’s E&C bill actually exceeds their request for transparency by creating a permanent, statutory requirement for enrollee-level reporting and a public CMS data file that would be accessible to all. We’re grateful to the Committee for unanimously demanding transparency in this important healthcare program.
Yet transparency is just one piece of a larger solution. The Representatives’ letter also includes additional recommendations, which require no new legislation and no new appropriation:
- Reclassify healthy food benefits as “primarily health related”
- Standardize reporting categories so that medically tailored meals meet clear requirements
- Set much-needed dose-and-duration standards
- Modernize CMS’s plan comparison tool
- Pre-approve high-evidence SSBCI services
Momentum is growing for these reforms. Just last week, Reps. Murphy, Moran, MacKenzie, Van Orden, Barrett, Nunn, Miller-Meeks, and Haridopolos also urged CMS to classify food as ‘primarily health related.’ These changes are all cost neutral and are likely to lower costs by forcing plans to spend existing funds on healthy food. Paying for healthy food as a medical service lowers Emergency Department usage and hospital readmissions. These reforms would also reduce fraud, cut waste, and make American seniors healthier.
We congratulate the Committee for taking this first important step and we urge CMS to act with urgency on the remaining reforms for Medicare Advantage SSBCI. NPPC continues to advocate for the full suite of regulatory, cost-neutral changes that will facilitate transparency, increased access, and improved accountability for these important nutrition services.
