Medicare Covers Wegovy for Weight Loss But Not a Dietitian [yIPMrx14JjQ]

Medicare Covers Wegovy for Weight Loss But Not a Dietitian [yIPMrx14JjQ]

| 1h 28m 28s | Video has closed captioning.

In March 2024, it was announced that Medicare recipients now have coverage for Wegovy if they have overweight or obesity and preexisting heart disease. This decision is based on results of the SELECT trial showing that this drug decreased the risk of heart attack and stroke in people with overweight or obesity and heart disease. While this is exciting news, it feels quite strange that these patients still do not have access to meet with a Registered Dietitian. Currently, Medicare only covers Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) for Medicare recipients that have diabetes or chronic kidney disease. While Medicare beneficiaries do technically have an intensive behavioral therapy for obesity benefit, this benefit has many restrictions related to where it can be provided and who it must be billed under. So, unfortunately, most dietitians cannot provide this service, and therefore it a very underutilized benefit. In addition, these visits are also shorter than traditional MNT visits. This makes it difficult for the dietitian or other healthcare professional to do a complete assessment, and the overall therapy may be negatively affected by the time restriction. Medicare limits MNT to three hours for the first year and two hours for every subsequent year. With this restriction, a year's worth of dietitians services costs less than a two-week supply of Wegovy. Please contact your representatives to let them know you support the MNT Act. This would let Medicare beneficiaries meet with a dietitians for overweight and obesity as well as many other nutrition-related health conditions. #go low diet pills walmart #kelly clarkson gummy #best weight loss pill