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Election 2009...Here is some information to help you become active, informed voters!

Register to vote: http://www.sos.georgia.gov/elections/voter_registration/voter_reg_app.htm

Find your polling place and to see who your elected representatives are: http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/polllocator/

Other election information: http://www.sos.ga.gov/Elections/

Learn about the presidential candidates' healthcare proposals: http://www.health08.org/index.cfm

Other election guides/news:

http://a3.thevoterguide.org/a-ajc08/index.do?sfr

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

http://www.time.com/time/politics

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18970417/

http://elections.foxnews.com/

Licensure Update

Clinical Privileges

After listening to the ADA Webinar, Hospitals, Privileging and You ... Doing it Right, a dietitian, in a clinical facility in the Atlanta area, was concerned about the writing-order privileges in place at her facility. She was also concerned that the “scope of practice” in the licensure law for dietitians did not support writing order privileges. She contacted The Joint Commission expert in her facility and shared the law with this person; the dietitian was advised to stop writing orders. The dietitian contacted the GDA licensure liaison and members of the GDA board to see about amending the law.
At the April 24, 2009 meeting of the licensure board, Barbara Hopkins, on behalf of the GDA board, spoke to the board about writing order privileges and the licensure law. The opinion of the licensure board is that it is not the board’s responsibility to not speak to the issue of clinical privileges. The licensure board’s responsibility is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public, and to regulate the activities of licensed dietitians.

There is no language in the licensure law that forbids a dietitian from writing an order for a diet, a tube-feeding, a TPN solution, or nutrition-related labs.   In the law, dietetic practice is defined as:
Dietetic practice" or "dietetics" means the integration and application for compensation of principles derived from the sciences of nutrition, biochemistry, food, physiology, management, and behavioral and social sciences to achieve and maintain client health through the provision of nutrition care services, which shall include:
(A) Assessing the nutritional needs of individuals and groups based upon appropriate biochemical, anthropometric, physical, and dietary data to determine nutrient needs and recommend appropriate intake including enteral and parenteral nutrition;
(B) Establishing priorities, goals, and objectives which meet nutritional needs and are consistent with available resources;
(C) Providing dietetic nutrition counseling by advising and assisting individuals or groups on appropriate nutritional intake by integrating information from the nutritional assessment with information on food and other sources of nutrients and meal preparation consistent with cultural background and socioeconomic status;
(D) Developing, implementing, and managing nutrition care delivery systems; and
(E) Evaluating, making changes in, and maintaining standards of quality in food and nutrition care services. As used in this chapter, the terms "dietetic practice," "dietetics," and "medical nutrition therapy" are interchangeable.
Review the entire law at www.sos.state.ga.us/plb/dietitians
However, a licensed dietitian must have clinical privileges to write orders. These privileges are established by the facility and the facility must be able to document the dietitian’s competence in performing these activities. Since clinical privilege is a facility-led process, it should be outlined in the medical-staff bylaws and/or be a part of the policies and procedures of the facility. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), dietitians can write therapeutic diet orders if:
·         the physician establishes a means to delegate authority to the dietitian for writing prescribed diet orders
·         the physician uses a verbal order process in accordance with CMS’s regulations and guidance; or
·         the physician consents to use the medical unit’s or the hospital’s nutrition order policies or protocols authorized by the governing body of the hospital.

There are excellent resources available to ADA members privileges and order writing. Log on to the ADA website (www.eatright.org). On the left side of the home page, there is a link “Practice.” Click on the link, then click on “Quality Management.” You will find many resources available including links to CMS and The Joint Commission.
For additional question contact your licensure liaison, Ellen Jurgens, at ellenjurg@earthlink.net or 404-964-1951.

current issues

Good News! Congress overrides Medicare veto, allows for MNT expansion

The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act becomes law. A new preventive services title is of enormous significance to Registered Dietitians. Title I, which goes into effect January 2009, establishes a procedure by which Medicare may expand coverage of preventive services, including Medical Nutrition Therapy.

Thank you for responding to the ACTION ALERTS. Together we can make a difference!

ADA to review stance on menu board labeling

ADA President Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, LD, FADA this week contacted 67,000 members of the association to announce that ADA would review its current stance on legislation calling for the mandatory labeling of restaurant foods for their calorie content.

Restaurants and other foodservice sites are typically exempt from nutrition labeling regulations unless specific nutrition claims are made, Diekman said. However, some states and cities have legislation pending to require certain restaurants and food establishments to provide calorie information on menu boards.

To date, ADA has not supported any legislative proposals requiring restaurant calorie labeling. “ADA generally praises state and local officials for their attention to this matter, but we urge caution in endorsing restaurant legislation or initiatives in the absence of science to indicate that the action will be effective,” said Jennifer Weber, MS, RD, and ADA’s manager of national nutrition policy.

ADA’s stance is guided by agreed upon sets of nutrition labeling principles and its consistent policy of differentiating between nutrition information and nutrition education. A presentation that includes ADA’s labeling principles can be found at http://www.eatright.org/ada/files/FDA_Hearing_Presentation.pdf , slides 10 and 11. An ADA working group report on restaurant labeling options is posted with ADA issue briefs at http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_1537_ENU_HTML.htm.

LOCAL ADVOCACY IN ACTION

Public Policy Workshop 2008 was a monumental success... nearly 500 ADA members and interns spent three days learning more about ADA grassroots program, our priority legislative initiatives and how America's government works. 5 GDA members including 2 from the Atlanta district attended PPW this year. ADA members traveled to Capitol Hill to lobby their Senators and Representatives on expanding medical nutrition therapy in both Medicare and Medicaid. Members also asked their members of Congress to talk to the conferees on the farm bill about the need to improve the nutrition provisions of that bill.

ADA's Public Policy Workshop is one of the most important and exciting meetings we hold every year. Mark your calendar now for PPW 2009: February 9-11 in Washington, D.C.

Legislative Resources

Disclaimers

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