Nearly 20% of the US population lives in rural communities. Rural residents experience obesity disproportionally and have less access to effective weight loss programs than do residents of other areas. Primary care has the potential to fill an important need in treating obesity in rural America. Primary care is traditionally provided on a fee-for-service (FFS) model with 15-minute individual office visits, as is reimbursed by Medicare under the intensive behavioral therapy for obesity (IBT) benefit, which was approved in 2011 as the first benefit billed under an obesity diagnosis code. However, alternative models may be better suited for behavioral obesity treatment especially in the rural setting, where having fewer available clinic staff may limit capacity for frequent individual visits.
