Health-Related Social Needs Innovation Showcase
The Health-Related Social Needs Innovation Showcase, hosted by the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative in June 2025, featured eight companies whose solutions are designed to support Medicaid stakeholders with their health-related social needs (HRSN). Showcase attendees had the opportunity to learn more about each company and engage in in-depth Q&A sessions with them to assess the potential for future partnerships. Learn more about the Innovation Showcase & selected solutions below.
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Overview
The 2025 HRSN Innovation Challenge application had three focus areas for organizations to choose from in their response to how their solution(s) would address key social determinants of health needs. Solutions were expected to address one or more focus areas - namely, food, housing, and transportation gaps - within this opportunity.
During the application review process, several interesting submissions stood out for their focus on creating ways for individuals to access and be connected to essential services and benefits, find culturally competent care in their communities, and bridge the gap between members and their care teams. A fourth focus area, Navigation Services, was identified to to include these solutions which may not fit neatly into one focus area but instead span across multiple social needs.
The 2025 HRSN Innovation Showcase highlighted solutions that address at least one of the following four focus areas:
- Food and Nutrition Security
- Housing Affordability and Quality
- Transportation Services
- HRSN Navigation Services
Innovation Showcase: Opening Remarks
Listen to leaders from the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative, Acumen America, and state Medicaid organizations discuss the importance of addressing social needs through innovation.
Solutions Selected to Present
With criteria based on the findings from community discovery, members of the Selection Committee nominated the following organizations to present their models at the HRSN Innovation Showcase in June 2025.
Bento
As a tech-enabled-service, Bento uses nutritious groceries, curated by registered dietitians, as the catalyst to establish the trust and engagement needed to close care gaps for our country’s most vulnerable patients.
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FarmboxRx
FarmboxRx is a leading member engagement platform that partners with Healthcare Organizations to improve Member health outcomes via customizable nutrition solutions and health literacy. Since 2014, FarmboxRx has been providing meaningful, scalable, and medically appropriate support to promote health equity and inspire self-efficacy for individuals to attain the highest level of health.
Kaizen Health
Kaizen Health is redefining access to care by addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) through seamless transportation solutions. We remove transportation barriers that hinder access to essential services like healthcare, food, education, employment, and housing. By doing so, we empower individuals to live healthier, happier lives. Serving a broad range of clients - including Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, Commercial plans, PACE/ACO plans, healthcare systems, clinicians, clinical trials, senior living, in-home healthcare, non-profits, palliative & hospice care, K-12 schools, and municipalities - Kaizen Health ensures timely, reliable, and safe transportation for diverse needs. We help patients get to their medical appointments, staff to work, and communities to essential services, all while fostering equitable access to care and services for underserved populations. Our mission is simple: break down transportation barriers to improve health outcomes and create a world where every person has the opportunity to thrive.
Roundtrip
Roundtrip is a tech-enabled services solution for healthcare organizations that optimizes workflows for ordering patient transportation. The software and wraparound services seamlessly connect users to a nationwide network of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) providers, offering a full suite of vehicle types for each patient's unique medical needs. Its integrations with industry-standard software, like Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems enhance user efficiency and visibility into ride status. With thousands of users across the nation, Roundtrip has proven results in reducing patient no-shows, expediting discharges, and enhancing patient and staff satisfaction.
Samaritan
Samaritan serves as essential infrastructure for managed care organizations, health systems, and community-based organizations - multiplying the effectiveness of existing outreach and care efforts for individuals who often remain disconnected, especially those on or near the street. These individuals struggle to engage with available services - not because support doesn’t exist, but because mistrust, limited capacity, and the demands of daily survival make follow-through incredibly difficult. Samaritan is a lightweight, person-centered engagement solution used by care teams to build trust, sustain connection, and increase follow-through. Members receive a strategic combination of upfront capital to overcome barriers, targeted financial incentives for achieving co-created goals, and consistent relational support - all of which are needed by vulnerable populations to leverage existing programs, enhancing the effectiveness of the safety net. MCOs and risk-bearing healthcare organizations contract with Samaritan to equip frontline teams with a proven engagement platform and offer their under-resourced populations tech-free Memberships. Rather than adding new staff or duplicating existing services, Samaritan strengthens the capacity of existing care teams to deliver support more consistently and measurably - especially for individuals who have historically been hardest to reach. The evidence is strong: an independent evaluation found that Samaritan reduced emergency visits by 21%, improved care plan compliance by 91%, and lowered total cost of care by up to 54% compared to matched populations - with care teams and community partners giving Samaritan top marks for both impact and ease.
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Tangelo
Tangelo is a comprehensive Food as Medicine program that combines digital services such as diet assessments and education with nutrition counseling and food programs. We assess a patient's diet, including measuring their diet quality and use that information to prescribe a personalized nutrition intervention that is culturally relevant and condition specific. The program includes multi-modal condition-specific education, including live sessions with dietitians, culinary education, and budget-conscious recipes and shopping advice. The program also includes culturally-tailored, condition-specific food delivered to the members front door in multiple forms, including frozen food, semi-prepared food, food and produce boxes.
ThriveLink
ThriveLink builds AI-powered telephonic agents that help families enroll in critical programs like Medicaid, housing support, transportation, and nutrition—completely over the phone, with no internet, smartphone, or literacy required. Available in 75 languages, our AI agents speak with patients directly, filling out and submitting applications for government, health plan, and community services. Originally built by nurses and tested with health plans, hospitals, and community-based organizations, ThriveLink has already supported thousands of families across 8 states. Our platform has completed over $2 million in benefits applications and achieved up to 87% engagement rates—more than twice the industry average. Health plans and hospitals use ThriveLink to boost member engagement, reduce administrative workload, and close critical gaps in care, including HRSNs and Annual Wellness Visits. Our AI agents replace paper forms, referral portals, and follow-up calls with a single phone number that works for every patient, every time. ThriveLink is billable under existing CPT codes, supports VBC goals, and works at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional approaches. We are proud recipients of the ANA Innovation Award, MIT AI for Humanity Award, and the ATA Innovation in Patient Experience Award.
Upside
Upside is a nationally scalable housing stability solution designed to help health plans proactively identify and stabilize their most vulnerable members. Our platform connects Medicaid and Medicare populations to safe, supportive housing options, reducing emergency care usage and improving health outcomes. We bridge the gap between healthcare and housing to address the root cause of poor health: housing instability.
Over 60 HRSN solutions applied to MIC’s 2025 Cohort
Read the full roster of HRSN applicants.
