HHS and CMS launched the “Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge” July 8, a voluntary, nationwide initiative inviting hospitals to serve more nutritious meals.
Six things to know:
1. The pledge encourages hospitals to cut back on highly processed foods and prioritize nutrient-dense options that align with the dietary guidelines for Americans, according to the July 8 HHS news release.
2. Hospitals that sign on commit to limiting ultra-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, swapping deep frying for methods such as baking, broiling, roasting, stir-frying or grilling, cutting back on processed meats, favoring whole grains over refined grains, and prioritizing minimally processed proteins, including plant-based options.
3. The pledge builds on a March 30 CMS memo that reminded hospitals of their existing obligations under Medicare’s Conditions of Participation, including meeting individual patients’ nutritional needs, maintaining dietitian oversight and keeping therapeutic diet manuals current, and called on them to align menus and food procurement with the 2025-2030 dietary guidelines for Americans. That guidance also encourages capping added sugar at under 10 grams per meal unless clinically indicated, and offers lower-sugar alternatives for postsurgical patients on clear liquid diets.
4. Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in March became the first institution to sign a separate, related CMS pledge focused on farm-to-hospital purchasing, formalizing partnerships with Florida farmers alongside commitments to workforce training, medically tailored meals and expanded sourcing pathways for local producers.
5. The rollout hasn’t been without friction. An April 1 post on X from Calley Means, a top adviser to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., warned that hospitals serving patients sugary drinks were “out of compliance with government standards” and risked their reimbursements, directing the public to report violations to a CMS hotline typically used for medical billing complaints.
6. CMS has since walked that framing back. Responding to Becker’s, a CMS spokesperson said the March 30 memo does not create new mandates, change Medicare’s Conditions of Participation, or impose new penalties, and that no facility has had funding withheld under the guidance. The spokesperson added that any hotlines or websites circulating online “do not reflect HHS or CMS policy.” A separate brief from law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld noted CMS had never before interpreted its Conditions of Participation language as mandating adherence to a specific set of dietary guidelines.
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