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Not only can Medi/Medi patients decline being weighed, BUT...it's possible to have the noxious BMI
number, along with a weight figure gotten from God-knows-where, REMOVED from your records. Yup - you may have to be a wee tad bit pushy, but who cares? This is called defending your position.
I know - I did this last year at my Cedars-Sinai gp's office. Both numbers, the BMI & a weight that
likely came from an anaesthesiologist who treated me for a prior surgery, were REMOVED from my
records - I saw it for myself. Sometimes we just have to be not so nice in order to get what we need.
Next goal: seeing to it that the word "obese" is NEVER used in conjunction with my size. For the record, I am a rawboned 5'6" and weigh 185 pounds. Some people just see mountains of fat wherever
they look.
As always, a HUGE "thank you" to you, Ragen, for making this work so visible to so many who need it.
Thank you for this piece! Any recommendations on how to navigate the discreet part of why weighing was declined? Also is it discreet to protect the patient from harm or discreet because Medicaid/Medicare don't want to promote the option?
Both would be helpful. However when I was writing the question, I was leaning toward documentation. The doctor above made a point that it would discretly need to be added to the documentation. "One would need to document this [weigh-in denial/medical reason for not weighing in] discretely in the electronic health record (EHR) so it can be automatically excluded from the reporting tools that are used for MIPS." So I was wondering what that would look like and what the purpose of being discret was for (i.e. to protect the patient from harm or because Medicaid/Medicare prefers weight centric care.)
MEGA MEGA thank you for this, Ragen! SO glad to have this resource to share with others. You are a gem!
Thank you for writing about this!! This question comes up all the time and I'm so glad to have this resource to send to readers.
Not only can Medi/Medi patients decline being weighed, BUT...it's possible to have the noxious BMI
number, along with a weight figure gotten from God-knows-where, REMOVED from your records. Yup - you may have to be a wee tad bit pushy, but who cares? This is called defending your position.
I know - I did this last year at my Cedars-Sinai gp's office. Both numbers, the BMI & a weight that
likely came from an anaesthesiologist who treated me for a prior surgery, were REMOVED from my
records - I saw it for myself. Sometimes we just have to be not so nice in order to get what we need.
Next goal: seeing to it that the word "obese" is NEVER used in conjunction with my size. For the record, I am a rawboned 5'6" and weigh 185 pounds. Some people just see mountains of fat wherever
they look.
As always, a HUGE "thank you" to you, Ragen, for making this work so visible to so many who need it.
Thank you for this piece! Any recommendations on how to navigate the discreet part of why weighing was declined? Also is it discreet to protect the patient from harm or discreet because Medicaid/Medicare don't want to promote the option?
Hi Jenna,
Do you mean how to navigate it during conversation, or how to enter it into the patient record?
Both would be helpful. However when I was writing the question, I was leaning toward documentation. The doctor above made a point that it would discretly need to be added to the documentation. "One would need to document this [weigh-in denial/medical reason for not weighing in] discretely in the electronic health record (EHR) so it can be automatically excluded from the reporting tools that are used for MIPS." So I was wondering what that would look like and what the purpose of being discret was for (i.e. to protect the patient from harm or because Medicaid/Medicare prefers weight centric care.)
I have both Medicare and Medicaid. I always decline to be weighed unless there is a valid reason for it. There seldom is.