{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-marshall-smith-cassidy-urge-cms-to-advance-access-to-medically-tailored-meals", "Booker, Marshall, Smith, Cassidy Urge CMS to Advance Access to Medically Tailored Meals", "2025-09-12", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) wrote a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz, urging the agency to establish standardized billing codes for Medically Tailored Meals (MTMs) to help streamline reimbursements and support efforts to make our communities healthier.\n\n\u201cBetter integration of MTMs into health treatment would both improve health outcomes for those with diet-related diseases and generate cost savings. While Congress must pass legislation to authorize Medicaid and Medicare coverage of MTMs, we strongly urge CMS to create separate coding and payment for MTMs, which would help make reimbursement simple, efficient, and accurate once this coverage is in place,\u201d the senators wrote.\n\n\u201cMedically-tailored meals (MTMs) are nutritionally customized and generally home-delivered meals for individuals with diet-sensitive health conditions, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). These meals are designed by registered dietitian nutritionists to treat a patient\u2019s specific illness. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than half of American adults have one or more diet-related chronic diseases, creating an urgent need for access to MTMs as an evidence-based, cost-effective public health intervention,\u201dthe senators continued.\n\n\u201cWe strongly encourage CMS to finalize and implement a policy that creates separate coding and payment for MTMs administered by the full range of providers, including practitioners and community-based organizations,\u201d the senators concluded.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-marshall-smith-cassidy-urge-cms-to-advance-access-to-medically-tailored-meals"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.767332898452878, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}