Screening, Counseling for Obesity

Graphic courtesy of Obesity in America.

Medicare will cover preventive services to reduce obesity, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This complements the Million Hearts initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in the next 5 years, a goal shared by CMS, the Centers for Disease Control Prevention, and a number of health-care organizations across the country.

Screening and counseling by primary-care providers is covered under this new benefit, which will be offered for free. A beneficiary who screens positive for obesity with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2, could receive one face-to-face counseling visit each week for one month, and one face-to-face counseling visit every other week for an additional five months.

The beneficiary may receive one face-to-face counseling visit every month for an additional six months (for a total of 12 months of counseling), if he or she has achieved a weight reduction of at least 6.6 pounds during the first six months of counseling.

More than 22.6 million people with Medicare have received one or more free covered preventive services this year.

millionhearts.hhs.gov

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