The Overview

Rhode Island is taking a first step toward letting doctors prescribe healthy meals and fresh produce to Medicaid patients with illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. Gov. Dan McKee (D) signed House Bill 8171 on June 18, creating a task force to design a food as medicine pilot program and figure out how to pay for it. ​

Supporters see the effort as a way to slow health care spending. Medicaid makes up about one-third of the state budget and is expected to grow about 6% a year, said Sen. Victoria Gu (D-Westerly), who sponsored the Senate version, in the General Assembly’s signing announcement. Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, which backed the bill, delivered 22,787 medically tailored meals in 2025, the group said in testimony to state senators.

What the Law Does

The task force, run by the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, brings together state agencies, health care providers, insurers and academic experts. It will recommend who should qualify and what the program could cover, such as produce prescriptions, food vouchers, medically tailored meals and nutrition classes prescribed by medical professionals for people with diet-related diseases or who don’t have reliable access to food.

The law also lets the office ask the federal government for a Medicaid waiver, special permission to spend Medicaid money in new ways, to fund the pilot for eligible patients. The task force must also look at the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, which awarded Rhode Island more than $156 million in December 2025.

Legislative Status

Rep. Justine Caldwell (D-East Greenwich) sponsored the House bill with Democratic Reps. Scott Slater, Rebecca Kislak and Tina Spears. Senate President Valarie Lawson (D) cosponsored Gu’s Senate version.

A House committee set the bill aside for further study in May, then approved a revised version June 8. The House passed it 63-8 on June 10, and the Senate approved it the next day on its consent calendar, a list of bills passed together without debate.

“The lifelong impact of healthy, nutritious food cannot be overstated,” Caldwell said when the General Assembly sent the bill to McKee. Gu argued that the state’s budget gap will keep growing unless Rhode Island turns to evidence-based programs like food as medicine.

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