More people who are overweight or obese may get screened for diabetes under guidelines released Tuesday by a panel of prevention experts. As a result, insured people whose blood sugar is higher than normal now can be referred to nutrition and exercise counseling without paying anything out of pocket for it.
"Obesity and overweight have been risk factors all along for diabetes," says Dr. Wanda Filer, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "But we haven't had guidelines that actually said, 'Screen those folks.'"
Under the health law, insurers have to cover preventive services without charging patients for them when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has given those services grades of A or B, which indicate moderate-to-strong supporting evidence.
[For more of this story, written by Michelle Andrews, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/he...or-overweight-adults]
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