Instacart and Mount Sinai Solutions Launch a New Grocery Benefit to Support Patients After Hospital Care

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Oct 04, 2023, 09:00 ET

Instacart Health Fresh Funds benefit now available to recovering post-operative and post-partum patients who are insured by a Mount Sinai Solutions customer's health plan

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), the leading grocery technology company in North America, and Mount Sinai Solutions, a division of Mount Sinai Health System serving employers and unions, today announced a new partnership that provides Instacart Health Fresh Funds grocery stipends as a benefit for post-operative and post-partum patients insured by a health plan sponsored by a Mount Sinai Solutions employer or union customer. The new program is designed to alleviate challenges to accessing fresh groceries, pantry staples and household essentials following a major life event, such as a joint replacement, birth, or bariatric surgery. Working in direct partnership with employers and unions, Mount Sinai Solutions offers access to care and services that enhance the patient experience through a seamless and simplified health benefits ecosystem.

"Instacart has transformed grocery shopping, giving families nationwide access to a broad selection of retailers and quick and convenient delivery. Today, we reach more than 95% of U.S. households, including 93% of U.S. food desert residents, and through Instacart Health, we're using our reach and technology to create impactful access programs with leading providers and health plans that help solve real patient challenges," said Sarah Mastrorocco, Vice President and General Manager of Instacart Health. "Our powerful platform offers patients the dignity of choice to use their health benefits to purchase groceries that meet their unique tastes, needs and budgets. We're proud to announce our new partnership with Mount Sinai Solutions to expand patient access to the day-to-day essentials they need on their road to recovery."

Through the new partnership, patients within the Mount Sinai Solutions network will receive $110 in Fresh Funds for the episode of care to pay for delivery of fresh groceries, pantry staples, and household and baby essentials following specialized care and surgery at Mount Sinai facilities in New York City, and extended partners in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Patients will also benefit from a tailored Mount Sinai Virtual Storefront, allowing for easy shopping and delivery of provider-recommended goods from local, regional and national retailers via Instacart. Using Instacart Health tools, the program supports each patient's recovery with actionable recommendations from Mount Sinai experts.

"Mount Sinai Solutions and our Centers of Excellence are designed to be hyper-focused on a patient's end-to-end care journey to improve outcomes while driving down costs associated with re-admittance or ER visits," says Lauren Lisher, Senior Vice President of Specialty Care and Partnerships at Mount Sinai Solutions. "We are pleased to partner with Instacart to offer a robust grocery delivery solution that provides nourishing foods and essentials needed for a smooth recovery after hospital discharge."

Instacart Health leverages the power of Instacart's platform, products and partnerships to expand access to nutritious food, inspire sustainable healthy choices, and scale food as medicine programs across the country. Using Instacart Health's suite of digital provider tools, partners can scale food prescription programs, enhance collaborative care and offer actionable medically tailored nutrition advice to patients.

Instacart partners with more than 1,400 retail banners and over 80,000 stores across North America. The company is dedicated to expanding access to nutritious foods and is the first grocery marketplace to offer online SNAP acceptance in all 50 states in the U.S. Today, the company offers SNAP online from more than 120 retail banners across over 10,000 stores^¹, reaching nearly 95% of U.S. households enrolled in SNAP.^²

Instacart accepts a variety of payment types, helping ensure every family has access to the essentials they need. Instacart will also offer grocery and over-the-counter health benefit card acceptance through InComm beginning January 1, 2024, and announced a new agreement with Alignment Health to offer chronically ill Medicare Advantage members in California and Nevada grocery benefits through Instacart in 2024.

About Instacart

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 80,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com.

About the Mount Sinai Health System and Mount Sinai Solutions

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it. Mount Sinai Solutions is a leading value-based care provider in the greater New York region. Serving over 400,000 lives, Mount Sinai Solutions is focused on the needs of patients and their employers and unions. It offers products, either directly or through partnerships, designed to enhance services and access to care via the Mount Sinai Health System.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org/solutions or find Mount Sinai Solutions on LinkedIn.

^¹ Instacart estimate for the quarter ended June 30, 2023. Based on the number of retail banners, physical store locations associated with the retailer banners where EBT SNAP payments are accepted on Instacart participants in areas serviced by EBT SNAP-enabled retailers.

^² Based on number of people in the U.S. enrolled in SNAP (USDA) in 2022 and Instacart estimate (as of July 2023) based on the number of EBT SNAP households in areas serviced by EBT SNAP-enabled retailers on Instacart.

SOURCE Maplebear Inc. dba Instacart