Pear Suite, an EHR and care navigation platform for community health workers, has teamed up with Instacart to expand access to healthy foods.
The collaboration will enable thousands of community health workers to address food insecurity for Medicaid members. Those using Pear’s platform can connect people with Instacart Health grocery stipends directly within their care workflows. The goal is to leverage food and staff as bridges to broader social services and ultimately preventive care across communities.
“Everyone recognizes the importance of food as a social determinant of health,” Pear co-founder and CEO Colby Takeda told Fierce Healthcare. “If people can’t eat, they can’t heal ... when you start with food, it’s just a way to break down barriers.”
While people can use SNAP, EBT or Instacart Health’s Fresh Funds to pay for groceries via Instacart, the goal of the program is to spark people’s interest in healthy foods. Fresh Funds are not intended to be a long-term solution to food insecurity through the program, Takeda explained. The length of Fresh Funds access for each person will be determined by the contracts negotiated by Instacart and payers.
Pear launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing the need to better integrate community health into the care ecosystem. The main issue driving this, in Pear’s view, was a technology gap: Workers were using pen and paper, unable to harness a unified and interoperable platform for their work. To that end, the platform supports screening, ongoing case management, creating and tracking goals, billing and more. These workers are uniquely positioned to connect with and support those most vulnerable, Takeda said.
How community health workers are defined and what credentials they have depends on states. Today, about 30 states have reimbursement for related services, according to Takeda. Pear supports more than 1,500 community health workers—from those officially credentialed to volunteers—and the technology is in-network with 20 health plans.
Organizations using Pear include doula groups, nonprofits, churches, high schools, libraries, public health agencies and housing sites. Members may pay a subscription to use Pear, or some Medicaid plans can cover it. Takeda thinks of Pear as Uber for the community health workforce.
“Community health workers are trusted advisors in their communities, helping people break down barriers and get the support they need to live healthier lives,” Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of health at Instacart, said in an announcement. “We’re building technology that supports this work by making it easier to connect people with fresh, nutritious food from trusted local grocers—quickly, simply, and at scale."
The latest partnership builds on a six-month pilot where community health workers combined nutrition education, SNAP enrollment support and grocery services with Instacart Health’s Fresh Funds in their outreach. The pilot engaged more than 3,000 Medicaid members and revealed that by addressing food insecurity, people are more likely to engage and discuss their other social needs.
The pilot found that 1 in 5 SNAP-eligible community members were not enrolled in SNAP, further demonstrating the need for those workers to serve as a bridge to broader benefits. Four in 10 pilot participants reported rising grocery costs and transportation challenges as barriers. Of those with immediate critical food access needs, 86%—or 150 families—successfully got food through the pilot.
Takeda has seen a growing interest among commercial and government payers in covering community health services, given their unique value in underserved communities. Last year, Pear saw a jump from three to 20 payer contracts. In 2024, an update to the physician fee schedule allowed for dozens of Medicaid programs, as well as Medicare, to reimburse for services.
Despite federal policies limiting access to Medicaid, “it’s been exciting to see that generally, community health workers and the work that they do is pretty bipartisan,” Takeda noted. “How do we engage [people], so when it’s time to submit work requirements or pass any other documentation requirements, they’ll be able to do so and get assistance from an on-the-ground, trained, bilingual community health worker?”
Pear launched a fundraise earlier this year and expects to announce the results over the next few weeks. More broadly, Takeda is thinking about ways to integrate community workers into health systems, public health agencies and with health information exchanges. Pear is in talks with lab testing companies, as well as ride-share companies, to expand access to preventive health services.
“Pear Suite being that link and that connective tissue to the rest of the healthcare system can be a really exciting opportunity for us and the broader healthcare ecosystem,” Takeda said.