Got Coverage? Health Care Reform and Nutrition Benefits

Beginning this January several parts of the Health Care Reform bill became active. The part that I'm most interested in is the preventive services that insurance companies are now required to cover. In addition to all sorts of screening and immunizations, dietary counseling for chronic disease prevention and obesity have been included in the approved preventive services.

US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations
http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsabrecs.htm

Very exciting! And very daunting. Over the past few weeks I have embarked on a long and cumbersome journey to become better educated on what this means for my role as a dietitian, how to bill these services correctly so the insurance company will reimburse me, and how can I best serve my clients with this new information.

Here is what I've found out:

A. Most customer service reps with the insurance companies have no idea what I'm asking for and I end up providing education and web links for their reference.

B. Yes, it is suppossed to be covered, however private insurance companies haven't figured out if they will or what will be covered.

C. In some cases, using the "right code" will ensure coverage. (They wouldn't tell me what the "right code" is though.)

D. According to my professional organization, my contact has confessed that "with private insurance...there is much room for interpretation at this point."

From my investigating I have come to the conclusion that we are all in the middle of a Trial and Error process. I'm resolved to play and have rolled my dice. This may require that I re-submit several claims before I find the right code.Wish me luck and send spare Tylenol or ibuprofen my way!