07/9/2008

American Dietetic Association Supports New Medicare Bill That Opens Door To Medical Nutrition Therapy Expansion

FOR RELEASE JULY 9, 2008

Media contact:  Jennifer Starkey, Tom Ryan
800/877-1600, ext. 4802, 4894
media@eatright.org

CHICAGO – Seven years after passing legislation to make registered dietitians Medicare providers of medical nutrition therapy, Congress has passed legislation that should allow for a major expansion of the benefit. The expansion is strongly supported by the American Dietetic Association, the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.

Congress originally limited MNT only to Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes and renal disease. The bill passed by the Senate Wednesday, July 9, and earlier by the House of Representatives contains language that should allow MNT to be expanded to cover therapy considered reasonable and necessary for the prevention of an illness or disability.

“Expanding Medicare coverage of MNT has been a high priority of ADA and its members for years,” said registered dietitian and American Dietetic Association President Martin M. Yadrick. “ADA members have made hundreds of visits to Capitol Hill, written thousands of letters and lobbied nearly every member of Congress to convince them that nutrition therapy is an essential element of comprehensive health-care plans.

“While more work needs to be done to ensure Medicare correctly interprets the intent of Congress to cover expanded MNT services, passage of the Medicare bill still represents a major step forward in providing seniors on Medicare access to critical services that can improve their lives,” Yadrick said.

The Medicare bill does not contain a list of specific preventive services to be covered. Instead, the bill establishes a procedure by which new services will be considered and evaluated. To be covered, preventive services must be proven to be necessary and reasonable and receive a recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force. Yadrick said expanding MNT to conditions such as pre-diabetes should be obvious since the evidence is so strong that nutrition interventions can prevent the progression of the disease. Other conditions recommended by the USPSTF also will be evaluated and submitted to Medicare for consideration.

Last August, the House of Representatives passed a bill that not only dealt with the reimbursement issue, but expanded preventive services covered by Medicare, including MNT. “There is strong evidence that intensive nutrition counseling by registered dietitians can reverse hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes,” Yadrick said.

“Medicare’s policy to cover nutrition therapy for beneficiaries with diabetes while not covering those diagnosed with pre-diabetes is short sighted. It runs counter to everything we know about MNT saving lives and saving health-care dollars.” The Centers for Disease Control estimates 57 million people are pre-diabetic.

The Medicare bill was considered one of Congress’ “must pass” pieces of legislation because it overrides a scheduled reduction in physician reimbursement rates of 10.6 percent set to go into effect July 1. Virtually no member of Congress supported reducing reimbursement rates; however, there has been considerable disagreement over how to pay for preventing the reductions.

The American Dietetic Association is the world's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. ADA is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy. To locate a registered dietitian in your area, visit the American Dietetic Association at www.eatright.org.