S-0925.1                   _______________________________________________

                                                     SENATE BILL 5436

                              _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1993 Regular Session

By Senators Talmadge, Moyer, Prentice, Fraser, Franklin and Winsley

Read first time 01/28/93.  Referred to Committee on Health & Human Services.

Establishing a pilot project to provide nutritional counseling to high-risk medicaid recipients.

          AN ACT Relating to nutritional counseling for medicaid recipients; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that the high cost of medicaid in Washington may be reduced by exposing certain high-risk recipients to sound nutritional counseling.  The legislature further finds that physicians treating these recipients are recommending nutritional counseling, but no funding exists for these services.  Therefore, the legislature intends to establish a pilot project to provide data on the impact of nutritional counseling, the potential cost savings to the medicaid program, and the improved health of citizens.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  (1) A two-year pilot project in King, Pierce, and Spokane counties, administered by the department of social and health services, is established to determine the impact of nutritional counseling on recipients of medicaid.

          (2) Recipients participating shall be referred by attending physicians.  Physicians shall refer recipients based on whether a medical condition could be improved by better nutrition.  Focus should be on high-risk patients such as those with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, lipid disorders, significant obesity, and other risk factors.

          (3) Those providing counseling services during the pilot project shall be limited to registered dieticians, certified by the state of Washington, who shall maintain data on each patient counseled in the program.

          (4) The department of social and health services shall contract with participating hospitals for the nutritional counseling services and establish project parameters.  The department of social and health services shall develop by rule the limitation on the number of visits that may be made by the patients to the dieticians.  The department of social and health services shall require interval progress reports from the counselors on each patient.

          (5) The department of social and health services shall compile the data and prepare a report for the legislature by November 1, 1995.

          (6) The project shall commence no later than September 1993.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  The sum of three hundred fifty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1995, from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the purposes of this act.

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