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You Can Make a Difference!

By the GSDA Legislative Chairs

We can all play an important role in policy and advocacy work! The more we engage with our legislators and the legislative process, the more influence we, as dietitians and dietitians-to-be, can have on policy that is critical to the health and well-being of our state and country. It is important for us to actively engage with our legislators through Action Alerts, emails and through social media, so that we can connect with them to discuss important legislative issues.

You may be thinking “I don’t have time to do this” or “This is not an area I am interested in”. However, we would urge you to consider the following:

  • Support for nutrition-related legislation will ultimately support the health and well-being of the patients/clients you serve.
  • Educating policy makers about nutrition-related legislation will help to reinforce dietitians’ reputation as the “Nutrition Experts” .
  • Passing nutrition-related legislation helps advance reimbursement for dietitian services.
  • Advocacy by actual dietitians sharing their stories is an effective way to garner support for legislation.

Still not convinced? Check out some upcoming activities sponsored by WSAND. Instead of an in-person Legislative Day in Olympia this year, WSAND has several Virtual Policy and Advocacy Activities available during the month of February:

  • Incident Reporting Tool video to watch
  • “Practical Policy with a Purpose: Making An Impact” webinar on Tuesday, 2/28/2023 from 12-1 PM (Pacific Time)
  • Virtual Policy and Advocacy Bingo: Complete at least ONE of the activities listed on the card and email card back to WSAND to be entered into a drawing to win one of several prizes (card is due by March 1st).
    • Bingo Card Activities include:
      • Completing an Action Alert
      • Looking up and identifying your State Representatives
      • Visiting the Academy’s advocacy web pages
      • Emailing a least 1 state senator or representative this session
      • Attending the Policy Webinar on 2/28

Visit the WSAND website for more details about these activities, to register for the webinar, to download the Bingo card and/or to watch the video. WSAND also has information on how to find out who your legislators are, and you can download a “Connect With Your Legislators” handout.

Hopefully, participating in some or all of the above activities will convince you that it is easy to get involved in policy and advocacy work. Taking a few minutes to complete an Action Alert, emailing a legislator with a personal story that could help support current legislation, or perusing the Academy’s advocacy web pages so you know more about the Academy’s current priorities can have a large impact. The Academy decides on Priority Areas every year and supports legislation that falls under each of the Priority Areas. This year’s Priority Areas are:

  • Well-Being and Prevention
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Nutrition Care and Health Systems
  • Nutrition Security and Food Safety

Learn more about these Priority Areas on the Academy’s website.

The Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) Act falls under the first three of the above Priority Areas. What is Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT)? MNT is the nutritional diagnostic, therapy, and counseling services furnished by a Registered Dietitian for the purpose of disease prevention, management, or treatment. It is a cost-effective and evidence-based approach that has a proven track record in improving the health outcomes for many people diagnosed with diseases and chronic conditions. MNT was first recommended as a Medicare benefit in 2000, and in 2002, the MNT Medicare benefit took effect to only cover diabetes and renal disease.

The MNT Act was proposed by the 117th Congress in 2021. In addition to diabetes and renal disease, passage of the MNT Act would expand Medicare coverage to include pre-diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, malnutrition, eating disorders, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases (including Celiac Disease), HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, and any other disease/condition that causes unintentional weight loss. This expansion would greatly improve the health outcomes of individuals not currently able to take advantage of MNT.

Additionally, in its current form, patients can only be referred to MNT by physicians. The MNT Act would also allow nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, clinical nurse specialists, and psychologists to refer patients. Needing a physician’s referral to take advantage of MNT is a barrier unto itself as not every patient can easily access a primary physician. By allowing other health professionals to refer patients to MNT, this barrier is removed.

Passage of the MNT Act would have a huge impact on the public’s health and on the dietitian profession. There would be a larger demand for dietitians to provide MNT and thus more jobs available. As dietitians and dietitians-to-be, we need to all work on furthering the role of dietitians as “Nutrition Experts”. As John F. Kennedy said, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try”.

Are you interested in learning more about policy and advocacy? Read more about the Policy and Advocacy Activities WSAND offered in 2022. In addition to finding out more about policy and advocacy, you can also earn FREE CPEU credit! There are 2 webinars available for 1 hour CPEU self-study. The first is called “Making the Protection Connection: Incident Reporting Tool” and the second is called “Practical Policy with a Purpose”.