Doctors need to change the way they treat obesity
A more nuanced billing code could encourage doctors to take a more nuanced approach. (DepositPhoto/)We now know that obesity, a chronic disease that affects almost half of the United States population and contributes to millions of deaths worldwide, isn’t just about how much you weigh. A huge variety of factors, from physical and mental health to genetics and upbringing, all contribute to the national obesity epidemic—and so do the human body’s own defense systems, which try to hold onto weight whenever possible. Like any other complex and multifactorial disease, clinicians say that obesity treatment requires a complex approach. But the system of billing classifications that healthcare professionals use is lagging behind this understanding, leading to suboptimal care: that’s the message of a new paper in the journal Obesity. These diagnostic codes are surprisingly important. Because they allow physicians to describe what they’re doing and why so they can get paid...