From the July 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


The study revealed that 18.5 percent of normal-weight postmenopausal women had body fat that was above the 75th percentile and about 23 percent of overweight postmenopausal women had body fat that was normal. “I don’t think many health care providers are aware of the gross inadequacy of BMI — the fact that it is neither age nor gender specific,” says Dr. Steven R. Goldstein, lead author of the study and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU School of Medicine.

Goldstein started investigating this new indication for DXA because reimbursement is at such a low rate. Insurance does not provide reimbursement but his thought is that if patients are willing to spend around $200 a week on trainers, they will be willing to shell out the money to find out their body fat percentage.


What does the future hold?
Despite the dismal reimbursement situation, change may be on the horizon. H.R. 2462 was introduced in the House of Representatives that aim to improve Medicare osteoporosis testing. Congressman Dr. Michael C. Burgess of Texas along with Representatives Linda Sanchez of California, John B. Larson of Connecticut and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee introduced the legislation, which establishes a business case for administering DXA tests. The bill has already been endorsed by the ISCD, NOF, and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

NOF’s Singer is confident that all of these efforts will eventually pay off. “We will be able to stem the tide and turn this trend around and get people back on board with the idea of appropriate utilization and availability of these tests,” she says.

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