2020-10-29 OMA Agenda - Board of Trustees

8. Legislation is needed to improve access to obesity care. Advocacy on behalf of patients with obesity remains a central issue in destigmatizing obesity and increasing patients’ access to quality care. In March of 2019, the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2019 (TROA) was introduced. 52 TROA would expand Medicare coverage for obesity therapy that is provided by “1) a physician who is not a primary care physician; or 2) other health care providers (e.g., physician assistants and nurse practitioners) and approved counseling programs, if provided upon a referral from, and in coordination with, a physician or primary care practitioner.” 52 In addition, state-level legislation is needed for coverage for obesity treatment. Continuous evaluation of patient outcomes is necessary to advance obesity treatment. Currently, the ACS/ASMBS MBSAQIP retains a national registry for accredited bariatric surgery centers to allow participating sites to evaluate their risk-adjusted outcomes as benchmarked against other similar centers. 53 The MBSAQIP also offers national quality improvement initiatives based on these outcomes. MBSAQIP includes registries for nonsurgical or endoscopic treatments for obesity in order to improve the quality of care. Medical and pharmacotherapies directed by obesity medicine specialist in accredited centers are also included in MBSAQIP as an added qualification of a hospital-based program and the measures for nonsurgical treatment are being expanded. Patient-reported outcome measures are currently being integrated into the MBSAQIP registry and remain an important tool. Any further comprehensive data repository should include patient-reported measures specific to obesity care. 9. A method for comprehensive data collection is encouraged for continuous evaluation of treatment outcomes.

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