You might think of food as the fuel that keeps your body running. While that’s true, the right mix of food and nutrients can get your body humming by helping you heal from surgery or an injury, or prevent, manage or even reverse some health conditions.
If you’re dealing with a chronic condition, or your primary care provider has warned you that you need to make some diet and lifestyle changes to maintain your health, ask about whether you would benefit from nutritional therapy with a registered dietitian.
Nutritional therapy is so much more than a diet plan. You’ll meet with a dietitian who will create a personalized plan based on your lifestyle, dietary habits and overall health. Your plan will address specific health concerns and aim to improve your overall well-being. It could involve making dietary changes like swapping one food for another, taking supplements, making lifestyle changes, and learning how to read nutrition labels and shop smarter.
How can nutritional therapy help?
A dietitian can help with a range of concerns or conditions, including:
Community Health Options covers medical nutritional therapy visits with a registered dietitian to address specific medical or behavioral health conditions:
Community Health Options Members can find information about nutritional therapy coverage in the plan documents through the Member portal. For those with general health goals in mind, some plans—including Healthy Maine plans—offer a digital wellness platform, which may include unlimited sessions with a health coach who can help design an eating plan and offer steps to stick to it. Members with those plans can find specific details in their Member portal.
If you have questions about whether you’ll have to pay for nutritional therapy or want information about CISP, please call Member Services at (855) 624-6463 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Many of us are waiting weeks or months to book medical appointments. Or taking a long drive to get to the only provider taking new patients—often more than an hour away. And once in the office, chances are we’re spending more time in waiting rooms just for a routine appointment.
The national shortage of healthcare workers has been well-documented, and Maine is feeling it, too, with access to providers emerging as one of the greatest barriers to treatment. By the end of 2022, Maine had just 580 doctors practicing family medicine, an 18% decline from 2019, according to The Portland Press Herald, leaving fewer doctors for a growing population.
During the pandemic, patients discovered the convenience of telehealth and began meeting with their providers through a phone call or video chat from the comfort of their own homes. The concept certainly wasn’t new—Community Health Options Members had access to Amwell® behavioral telehealth well before Covid-19 struck.
That concept has expanded to virtual primary care, giving people the option through an online care team, expanding access to care. Alongside its traditional provider network, Community Health Options now offers Members 18 and older the option to choose a virtual-first primary care team through Firefly Health.
When it comes to health outcomes, many studies have shown patients miss fewer virtual appointments, helping them to stay on track with their health needs. And in a recent pilot program, Walmart employees with diabetes who used virtual care saw a 24% average reduction in glucose levels and patients with hypertension had a 14% reduction in blood pressure, the company said in 2023 when it expanded its program to Maine, among other states.
