our-newsroom/addressing-ma-planning-challenges-with-proven-benefits
Catherine Macpherson, MS, RDN
Senior Vice President, Healthcare Strategy and Development, Chief Nutrition Officer
Addressing MA planning challenges with proven benefits
Product teams and their clinical and operational partners working on 2025 Medicare Advantage (MA) benefit planning are most likely strategizing and making decisions with lower payment increases in mind. But there is a way to meet rate challenges that benefits members and MA plans alike.
The role of nutrition in improving maternal health
Despite a heightened focus on maternal health in the past few years, rates of maternal mortality in the U.S. continue to rise. Pregnant people and new mothers are facing a health crisis, even though we have one of the world’s most advanced health care systems.
Food as medicine: Joining forces to improve public health
Poor nutrition is a leading cause of illness in this country, associated with more than half a million deaths each year. Eating a well-balanced diet not only helps prolong our lives, but lowers the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes and many other conditions.
The connection nutrition has with mental and behavioral health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a time to explore mental and behavioral health more closely. Not just this month, but on a regular basis, it’s important we continue to expand our understanding of these health conditions and find ways that can help people with mental and behavioral health conditions with treatment and prevention. One part of this approach is through good nutrition.
The impact on nutrition on heart disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in this country, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also notes nearly half of Americans have at least one of the three key risk factors for developing the condition: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking. Tragically, one person dies every 34 seconds in the U.S. from cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease results in $351 billion in direct and indirect costs. While these statistics may be startling, there are ways to help manage — and prevent — this chronic condition, and significantly improve the health of more individuals.