Following its recent announcement that Medicare recipients with diabetes will now be covered for medical nutrition therapy, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released additional details as follows:

• Medicare will cover three hours of nutritional counseling in the first year and two hours in subsequent years; the treating physician can order additional hours during the year if needed.
• The benefit does not cover dietary supplements, calendars or foods.
• This coverage is in addition to that for diabetes self-management training, which also includes a nutrition component. However, a patient cannot be reimbursed for both if they occur on the same day.

Under the medical nutrition therapy benefit, a dietitian or nutritionist creates individualized meal plans after assessing patients' health status, what they eat and how much exercise they get. Progress is checked throughout the year to see if the recommendations are working or whether they need adjusting.

Related information: Diabetes Diet | Nutrition channel: Nutrition Basics

Source:  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare revises medical nutrition therapy policy. Press release, March 1, 2002.