July 21, 2023<\/p>\n
Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Katie Brown, katie@nclnet.org, 202-823-8442<\/p>\n
Washington, D.C. \u2013 The National Consumers League (NCL) welcomes the reintroduction \u00a0of the\u00a0Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) as a needed step to end outdated Medicare rules that leave millions of seniors with diagnosed obesity \u2013 particularly members of Black and Latino communities \u2013 vulnerable to disability, disease and premature death due to lack of access to the full range of treatment options.<\/p>\n
Introduced by Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Representatives Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) and Gwen\u00a0Moore (D-WI), TROA will end this regulatory logjam by expanding coverage under Medicare Part D to new FDA-approved anti-obesity medications, which are currently excluded under a policy dating back to 2003. TROA will also end Medicare Part B restrictions on intensive behavioral therapy (IBT) that limit the delivery of IBT to primary care providers and restrict the physical locations where this care can occur. Through TROA, clinical psychologists, registered dietitians and nutrition professionals will be able to provide IBT if an individual with obesity is referred by a physician.<\/p>\n
At a time when the obesity rate among adult Americans exceeds 40 percent<\/a> and is even higher among communities of color \u2013 virtually half of African Americans (49.6 percent) and 44.8 percent of Hispanics<\/a> are living with obesity \u2013 passage of TROA could be a critical step in changing the trajectory of a disease that for too long has been overlooked and undertreated. The National Consumers League applauds TROA\u2019s reintroduction in the 118th<\/sup> Congress and pledges our support to gain passage of this important legislation on an expedited basis.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n About the National Consumers League (NCL)<\/strong> The National Consumers League (NCL) welcomes the reintroduction \u00a0of the\u00a0Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) as a needed step to end outdated Medicare rules that leave millions of seniors with diagnosed obesity \u2013 particularly members of Black and Latino communities \u2013 vulnerable to disability, disease and premature death due to lack of access to the full range of treatment options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[290,417,17,16,288,289,296,315],"tags":[262,354,398,355,449],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27091,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25317\/revisions\/27091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America\u2019s pioneer consumer organization.\u00a0 Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad.\u00a0 For more information, visit nclnet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"