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The investigators plan to disseminate the intervention more widely among PROS practices and to boost the dose of dietitian counseling through use of a disease management telephonic system, according to Dr. Resnicow.
Also, clinicians in the study were paid $50 per completed motivational interviewing session, but those in future studies will not be paid. "As long as fee-for-service is still around, they want to get reimbursed for this. ... For the two dissemination projects we are putting in..., we are going to help them maximize reimbursement, [using] 99214 and beyond," he said, referring to the CPT code for a visit by an established outpatient that includes moderate-complexity medical decision making.
Finally, the investigators plan to integrate the intervention with electronic health records to maximize its effectiveness. "Perhaps when the child comes in, many of you have electronic health record systems that may prompt you if you see an elevated BMI, but to take that one step further and have a motivational interviewing script pop up when you have a child who’s eligible for this type of counseling" should increase its use, he explained.
More information about motivational interviewing to address pediatric obesity is available online at the University of Michigan’s Center for Health Communications Research website, including DVDs about the project generally and about the intervention.
Dr. Resnicow had no relevant financial disclosures.