There are approximately 15 million people enrolled in Medicare who have diabetes or chronic kidney disease which is eligible for the benefit of personal nutritional counseling.
Medicare pays for the first three hours of dietary counseling during the first year the benefit is used, and two hours in subsequent years.
Only 5% of Medicare beneficiaries receive Medical NutritionTherapy Counseling. Yet, participants who receive counsel from Registered Dietitians have A1c drops of 1-2%.
Kaiser Health News gathered testimonials from people who took advantage of the nutritional counseling referral and people found it help to bring down their blood glucose readings and realize what and what not to eat and portion sizes. One man, Louis Rocco, didn’t realize until seeing a dietitian that eating a lot of bread could be dangerous for him. He said “I’m Italian, and I always eat a lot of bread,” but he could see the difference in his readings after two, hour-long consultations with a dietitian.
The problem may be that not enough physicians know about the Medicare benefit. Doctors have to refer patients to a dietitian. See Kaiser Health News for the full article.
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