Dosing of Health and Wellness Coaching for Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: Research Synthesis to Derive Recommendations

Health & Wellness Coaching Services: Making the Case for Reimbursement

In 2020, a consortium composed of three national coach credentialing organizations, four medical societies, and 72 healthcare organizations led by National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) was formed to advocate for the reimbursement of Health and Wellness Coaching (HWC) services in the U.S. healthcare system. Building on that, the NBHWC and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) initiated a pivotal collaboration in 2023, with a target audience comprised influential reimbursement policymakers, notably the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) Panel and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This concerted effort led to CMS announcing the temporary inclusion of HWC services on the 2024 Medicare Telehealth list. This ongoing advocacy work is crucial while understanding its key components is imperative for wider participation. This paper aims to distill the essence of the advocacy to date into a coherent narrative. By doing so, we seek to share with stakeholders-health and wellness coaches, medical professionals, healthcare organizations, patient advocates, and policy experts-a robust framework to support advocacy for reimbursement to both government and private insurers, at local and national levels. This initiative marks a significant milestone in healthcare policy, reflecting a growing recognition and impact of HWC.

Using concepts from trauma-informed care: Potential to inform health and wellness coaching for college students

College students are struggling to maintain well-being, with mental health challenges becoming exceedingly disruptive. Health and wellness coaching can be utilized in the college setting in addition to counseling to connect college students with resources, provide support through accountability and unconditional positive regard, and promote personal growth. Trauma-informed care is an effective approach for supporting those who may be or are experiencing trauma and is shown to be relevant in the college setting. This paper describes a rationale for integrating trauma-informed care and health and wellness coaching to enhance overall college student well-being, foster academic achievement, and create a safe, inclusive environment for growth.

Impact Evaluation of the Get Healthy in Pregnancy Program: Evidence of Effectiveness

The efficacy of lifestyle interventions for reduced gestational weight gain (GWG) is established, but evidence of their effectiveness is limited. The Get Healthy in Pregnancy (GHiP) program is a telephone health coaching program supporting healthy GWG delivered state-wide in New South Wales, Australia. This evaluation explores the impact of GHiP on behavioural outcomes and GWG, analysing GHiP participant data (n = 3702 for 2018-2019). We conducted McNamar's tests to explore within-individual change for behavioural outcomes and logistic regression to assess associations between demographic characteristics, participant engagement and behavioural and weight outcomes for women who completed the program. Participants who completed ten coaching calls made significant improvements (all p < 0.001) in more health-related behaviours (walking, vigorous physical activity, vegetable consumption, takeaway meals and sweetened drink consumption) than those who completed fewer calls. Among women with valid weight change data (n = 245), 31% gained weight below, 33% gained weight within, and 36% gained weight above GWG guidelines. Pre-pregnancy BMI was the only factor significantly associated with meeting GWG guidelines. Women with pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity had lower odds than those with a healthy weight of having GWG within the guidelines. The majority of these women did not gain weight above the guidelines. A higher proportion of women with pre-pregnancy obesity gained weight below the guidelines (33.8%) than above the guidelines (28.5%). GHiP has the potential to support all pregnant women, including those with pre-pregnancy obesity, to achieve a healthier pregnancy.