Medicare expands coverage for eating disorder treatment via nutrition therapy
S. 1971 — Nutrition CARE Act of 2025 · Filed by Maggie Hassan (D-NH) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 5, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends Medicare to cover medical nutrition therapy (counseling and treatment by registered dietitians) for beneficiaries with eating disorders, starting January 1, 2026. Currently, Medicare covers nutrition therapy only for diabetes; this expands it to eating disorders. The bill guarantees at least 13 hours of services (including a 1-hour initial assessment) in the first year and 4 hours annually thereafter, with referrals from physicians or mental health professionals.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand Medicare's covered services to include medical nutrition therapy for eating disorders—a straightforward public health measure with no hidden provisions or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- Dietitian and nutrition professional supply may become a bottleneck if demand exceeds available practitioners; rural Medicare beneficiaries may face access barriers.
- The Secretary retains discretion to apply 'other reasonable limitations' beyond the stated minimums, creating potential for future administrative restrictions.
- No explicit cost-sharing or copay structure is stated in the bill; final beneficiary out-of-pocket costs depend on implementing regulations.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Medicare beneficiaries with eating disorders gain access to a medically necessary treatment currently not covered, addressing a serious health condition with high mortality and morbidity. The bill imposes no new restrictions on beneficiaries' rights or remedies; it expands coverage.
Who stands to gain
- registered dietitians and nutrition professionals (service providers)
- mental health professionals (referral sources)
Named in the bill
Medicare (Title XVIII, Social Security Act), Secretary of Health and Human Services, registered dietitians, nutrition professionals, American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5 reference), physicians, psychologists and mental health professionals
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Jun 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 5, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,715,904 in lobbying spend. A filing names 49 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Maggie Hassan, the sponsor, reported $608,285 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Academy of Family Physicians — $1,715,904 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 15, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,550 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 15, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Medicare expands coverage for eating disorder treatment via nutrition therapy” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1971 Report an error
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