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Take Action Now!

Updated November 21, 2023

Academy Action Alerts

The Academy has announced an important new action alert. Please take action now!

• Senators Susan Collins (ME) and Gary Peters (MI) and Representatives Robin Kelly (IL) and Jen Kiggans (VA) introduced the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act (H.R. 6407/S. 3297).

• If passed, the MNT Act would expand coverage of MNT in Medicare Part B beyond diabetes and renal disease to include prediabetes, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, malnutrition, eating disorders, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases including celiac disease, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease and any disease related to unintentional weight loss.

• The MNT Act would also authorize the Secretary of Health to expand coverage to other disease states, and would allow nurse practitioners, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists and psychologists to refer their patients for MNT.  

• Expanded access to nutrition care is especially important for minority populations that have long faced chronic disease health disparities due to socioeconomic inequality and reduced access to health care, healthful foods and safe places to be active. With rising rates of chronic diseases that disproportionately impact communities of color, expanded access to MNT is more important now than ever.  

Urge your members of Congress to support the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act!

To take action on this and other action alerts, log into your Academy account and visit the Action Center at https://www.eatrightpro.org/advocacy/take-action/action-alerts

MAND’s bill calling for reimbursement parity for telehealth MNT, “An Act relative to telehealth parity for nutrition counseling” (H.1073/S.618), was on the docket at the May 2^nd public hearing of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Financial Services.

MAND’s Director of Public Policy and President-elect presented verbal testimony at the hearing and submitted a longer document and patient testimonials as written testimony. This document will be reviewed by members of the Financial Services committee, who will decide whether to advance the bill to the next step in the legislative process: reporting the bill favorably out of committee.

What can you do to help make this happen?

• See if your legislators serve on the Joint Committee on Financial Services by using this link: https://malegislature.gov/Committees/Detail/J11 
• If your legislator(s) serve on the Joint Committee on Financial Services, please send them an email and ask them to consider reporting "An Act relative to telehealth parity for nutrition counseling" (H.1073/S.618) favorably out of committee.  
• Attach this updated information on the bill to your email: MAND's telehealth bill one-pager
• Remember to address your legislators using their proper titles: "Dear Senator X" or Dear Representative Y." 
• Remember to include your full name and home address so they know you are a constituent. If you want to, include a reason why reimbursement for telehealth MNT is important to you, to a patient, to a family, to our profession, etc. 
• Please cc MAND’s Director of Public Policy Sarah Conca on your emails: sconca@live.com Thank you very much for taking action!

Want to help MAND contact and connect with our state and federal legislators?

Sign up to be part of MAND’s Grassroots Network!

To help MAND’s Public Policy Panel communicate effectively and advocate successfully for food and nutrition issues important to our profession, we maintain a list of members who would like to be more actively involved with public policy activities.

This “Grassroots Network” of MAND members from across the state is critical to advancing public policies supported by MAND and the Academy. Helping out can be as simple as sending an email or a social media message, as this helps to create and grow relationships with elected officials.

Each registered voter is a constituent of two U.S. senators and one U.S. representative as well as one state senator and one state representative. Our elected officials appreciate hearing directly from their constituents, learning about issues important to them. It is when we educate them on nutrition-related issues and directly ask for their support of a bill or policy item that we can begin to see success in policy areas important to us and our fellow nutrition and dietetics practitioners.

What can you do to get involved and join the Grassroots Network? Visit https://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema/bal/myelectioninfo.aspx and enter your home address to see a complete listing of your members of Congress, members of the state legislature and other local offices. Then email Sarah Conca, MAND’s Director of Public Policy at sconca@live.com with the following information:

• Your full name, credentials, home address, ZIP code + 4

• Preferred email and telephone number

• Name of your U.S. representative, MA senator and MA representative.

Thank you for your advocacy!