Grocery delivery company Instacart continues to expand its reach in healthcare and has notched a major health system partnership.
Northwell Health, New York’s largest health system, is collaborating with Instacart Health to expand access to nutritious food and scale food as health programs to reach diverse New York communities.
Through the partnership, Northwell will use Instacart Health tools to support unique programs that address social determinants of health including access to healthy food and transportation.
“We believe that Food is Health. And it’s important to us to meet the needs of the communities we serve, which is why we pursued an Instacart partnership,” said Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell, in a statement.
The first program to launch integrates Instacart Health tools into Northwell’s Center for Maternal Health Maternal Outcomes and Morbidity Collaborative (MOMS) so that moms-to-be who are food insecure have improved access to fresh and nutritious food, the health system said.
Northwell Health is particularly focused on addressing maternal health in Black and Brown communities who have long-standing disparities in maternal care. Using Instacart Health Fresh Funds, category-specific online grocery stipends, and Northwell’s Healthy Choices Storefront on Instacart, Northwell aims to provide moms-to-be with nutrition guidance and support during their pregnancies.
Northwell Health operates 21 hospitals and about 900 outpatient facilities and has more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. The health system says it cares for more than two million people annually in the New York metro area.
“Raising health is more than the care Northwell provides in our hospitals and doctors’ offices. It’s also about how we raise up the people in our communities and how we raise our expectations of what health can be, which is why Northwell contributes more than $2 billion in community benefit annually,” said Debbie Salas-Lopez, M.D., senior vice president of Northwell’s Office of Community Wellness and Population Health in a statement.
“The collaboration with Instacart is part of our comprehensive community health effort and will provide tools and resources to access nutritious foods for our staff, patients and communities,” Salas-Lopez said.
Instacart launched its health division in September 2022 with a focus on expanding access to nutritious food for underserved communities. The company has rolled out new products, strategic partnerships along with research and policy advocacy commitments to help increase food security and scale food as medicine programs across the country.
The company now partners with Boston Children’s Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, hospital-at-home solution provider Medically Home, NationsBenefits and many other organizations. Instacart also teamed up with insurtech Alignment Health to launch co-branded Medicare Advantage (MA) plans next year in some California and Nevada counties.
In January, it announced a collaboration with in-home care provider DispatchHealth to enable providers to prescribe food interventions, much like traditional medications, right to patients’ homes.
Instacart partners with more than 1,500 national, regional and local retailers to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. I
Instacart reaches more than 98% of households with its grocery delivery services, according to Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of Instacart Health.
“By partnering with Northwell Health, we’re leveraging our scale and Health tools to create impactful nutrition access and education programs that help solve real community challenges. Studies show that a healthy diet during pregnancy can greatly improve the health of both moms and babies and reduce the risk of several common complications. By offering our Fresh Funds stipends to give mothers more convenient access to nutritious food, and consumer tools that make Northwell Health’s expert guidance actionable, we’re supporting programs that help make our communities healthier,” Mastrorocco said.
