2020-10-29 OMA Agenda - Board of Trustees

have been made, but remain suboptimal. 24,25 In 2013, the American Medical Association formally recognized obesity as a chronic disease and established a diagnosis code specific for the disease of obesity. 26 While most Americans (94%) believe that obesity results in increased risk for early mortality, only 38% consider obesity a chronic disease. 22 Among healthcare practitioners, some are still reluctant to consider obesity as a disease, despite fulfilling defined criteria of a disease. 17 In a survey of healthcare practitioners, lack of time was the most commonly cited reason for not initiating discussions about weight loss with patients with obesity. 27 When asked about recording a diagnosis of “overweight” or “obesity” in the medical record, 28% reported that they “always” did so and 41% reported that they did so “most of the time”. 27 The diagnosis codes pertaining to obesity are significantly underutilized. In an analysis of Medicare claims, the Medicare obesity coverage benefit was used for only 0.35% and 0.6% of patients with obesity in 2012 and 2013, respectively. 28 This underutilization may be due to the lack of reimbursement for these codes, as well as limited resources for obesity treatment, and education. It may also be due to the increased transparency of electronic medical record documentation, resulting in providers being fearful of offending a patient who sees the diagnosis of obesity in their medical record. 17,29 This underutilization of the diagnosis code for obesity is clearly indicative of one of the many barriers patients face when seeking obesity treatment. Because obesity results in serious obesity-related complications and conditions, including cardiometabolic disease (metabolic syndrome, T2DM, hypertension, cardiovascular disease), obstructive sleep apnea, and some cancers, prevention and/or early intervention is key. Weight loss within a range of 5-15% can help to achieve therapeutic targets for hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, lipid values, sleep apnea, asthma/reactive airway disease, stress urinary incontinence,

7