ISSUE: Why is the evaluation and reimbursement for medical nutritional interventions different from pharmaceuticals? OVERVIEW: Dr. Freijer a nutrition health economist, will provide an overview on nutrition economics and explain why the outcomes of medical nutrition interventions are not well understood and how the lack of standardized medical nutrition terminology hinders the reimbursement of medical nutrition products. For instance, a recent European and US medical nutrition scoping review found that common medical nutrition terminologies were infrequently defined. Without standardized medical nutrition terminology and clinically relevant outcomes, it is very difficult to assure the interpretability of the results from scientific MN studies, as well as their economic evaluations (15min). The integral role that food and nutrients play in the disease etiology and progression puts a heavy burden on healthcare expenditures and should prompt decision-makers to consider the cost and value of nutrition interventions. While few health economic analyses of medical nutrition products are conducted, literature shows a clear upward trend in nutrition economic evaluations. Dr. Lenoir-Wijnkoop will present the methodological complexities associated with nutritional economic analysis that make direct and indirect cost calculation challenging. Real-world examples will illustrate why the benchmark identified for pharmaceutical interventions may not necessary apply to medical nutrition intervention (15min). Mr. Perugini represents the nutritional product industry and will use case studies to illustrate discrepancies between available evidence on the health outcome value of medical nutrition interventions and the current reimbursement policies for those technologies. What is the value of providing health economic modeling if the health technology assessment (HTA) and decision-making process do not look at the model? The focus will be on: 1) current reimbursement policies that reimburse those products by units of ingredient; 2) the case of parenteral (drug) vs. enteral medical nutrition (medical food) (15min). Fifteen minutes is allotted for audience discussion.