SB 239, An Act Concerning Nutrition And Food-Based Interventions For Patients With Diabetes And Congestive Heart Failure

TESTIMONY OF THE CONNECTICUT HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
SUBMITTED TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH COMMITTEE

Monday, February 23, 2026

The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) appreciates this opportunity to submit testimony concerning SB 239, An Act Concerning Nutrition and Food-Based Interventions for Patients with Diabetes and Congestive Heart Failure.  CHA appreciates the intent of this legislation, which seeks to strengthen the role of nutrition and medically tailored food-based interventions in addressing chronic disease.  However, CHA is concerned with the bill as currently drafted and requests an amendment to clarify expectations and avoid unintended mandates.

Connecticut hospitals make our state stronger by delivering nationally recognized, world-class care, supporting jobs and economic growth, and serving communities across Connecticut.  Every day, hospitals improve access, affordability, and health equity — providing care to all patients regardless of ability to pay.  At the same time, hospitals invest in their workforce and local communities, even as they navigate significant financial and federal challenges.

SB 239, as drafted, would require hospitals, when conducting a community health needs assessment (CHNA), to both (1) examine the nutrition needs of community members with diabetes and congestive heart failure (CHF), and (2) prioritize medically tailored and food-based interventions in the hospital’s implementation strategy.

Through community health needs assessments, hospitals identify, prioritize, and address the health needs of their surrounding communities.  CHNAs involve analyzing data and soliciting input from community members to create, implement, and report on strategies that improve population health, reduce health disparities, and increase access to care.  The bill’s language removes the flexibility hospitals need to respond to the most pressing needs in their communities as voiced by community members and identified in local data.  While these community needs may indeed relate to food insecurity and nutritional issues in patients with CHF and diabetes, it may not always be the case for every community across the state.  Hospitals must retain flexibility to respond to local priorities, available resources, and evolving community partnerships.

To address this concern, CHA requests the bill language be revised as set forth below:  

(NEW) (j) When conducting a community health needs assessment, if available data instructs, each hospital shall examine the nutrition needs of community members with diabetes and congestive heart failure, and, to the extent permissible under federal law, [(1)] include such nutrition needs in the hospital’s community health needs assessment.[ and (2) prioritize medically tailored and food-based interventions for community members with diabetes or congestive heart failure in the hospital’s implementation strategy.]

Hospitals across the state already incorporate nutrition-focused strategies into chronic disease care based on community-identified needs.  For example, hospitals in some urban communities have integrated food insecurity screening and nutrition programs into care for patients with CHF and diabetes, including connecting patients to local food and nutrition programs and partnerships at discharge.  In other examples, hospitals collaborate with organizations, such as Connecticut Foodshare, and community health providers to support prescription programs, nutrition education, and medically tailored meal initiatives.  These initiatives reflect meaningful, ongoing investment in nutrition-based interventions based on available data and community priorities and are implemented in a manner that is locally driven, community-informed, and scaled to available resources and partnerships.

More broadly, Connecticut hospitals routinely identify chronic disease management, food insecurity, and other nutrition-related social drivers of health as significant community concerns through the CHNA process.  Hospitals are actively implementing diabetes education, dietitian counseling, food insecurity screening, and partnerships that support medically tailored and food-based interventions.  Of significance is the fact that these strategies are developed through community input and local data, allowing hospitals the flexibility to prioritize nutritional interventions alongside other pressing health needs identified in each community.

For these reasons, while CHA supports continued attention to nutrition and chronic disease, an overly prescriptive statutory mandate should be avoided.  The existing CHNA framework is intentionally designed to be community-driven and flexible.  Maintaining flexibility ensures hospitals can responsibly allocate resources to the most significant health needs identified through data and community engagement.

Learn more about some of Connecticut hospitals’ nutrition and medically tailored interventions here.

Thank you for your consideration of our position.  For additional information, contact CHA Government Relations at (203) 294-7301.