NEWS ARCHIVE
U.S. Senators Harkin, Klobuchar, and
Franken introduce bill
to confront eating disorders in the U.S.
For Immediate Release
Contact:
David Jaffe
Executive Director, EDC
202-543-9570
(Washington, D.C. - March 3, 2011) - The United States took an important step toward addressing the national emergency of eating disorders when Senators Tom Harkin, Amy Klobuchar, and Al Franken introduced the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act today.
“The FREED Act is the first legislative effort in the history of the Senate to comprehensively confront the seriousness and deadly threat of eating disorders in the United States. We are proud to have Senators Harkin, Klobuchar and Franken champion our cause,” said Jeanine Cogan, Policy Director of the Eating Disorders Coalition.
A coordinated national response like the FREED Act can help the millions of Americans suffering (and, too often, dying) from eating disorders.
“It has been ten years since anorexia killed my daughter Anna,” said EDC Board Member Kitty Westin. “And eating disorders have killed thousands of Americans since then. It’s time for Congress to pass the FREED Act as a critical first step in addressing this national emergency.”
About the EDC
The Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action is working in Washington, D.C., to increase awareness, educate policymakers, and promote understanding about the disabling and life-threatening effects of eating disorders. Our mission is to advance the federal recognition of eating disorders as a public health priority. www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org
For the full article, click here
“HOLDING INSURANCE COMPANIES ACCOUNTABLE”
For Immediate Release
Contact:
David Jaffe
Executive Director, EDC
202-543-9570
(Washington, D.C. - February 17, 2011) The Eating Disorders Coalition (EDC) is disturbed by the brazen and wide-sweeping trend among health insurance companies to limit the scope of treatment benefits for eating disorders.
February 17, 2011 marks the 11-year anniversary of the death of Anna Westin, a young woman who died from her
eating disorder after being denied adequate treatment by her insurance company. As a result of Anna’s death, her former insurance company recognized the need for adequate coverage of necessary treatment for eating disorders and now covers that.
Sadly, other insurance companies do not. Across the country, insurance companies are eliminating, denying, and severely limiting coverage for eating disorder treatment.
Westin’s mother and EDC Board Member, Kitty Westin, says, “These insurance denials are all too reminiscent. Isn’t 11 years enough time to do the right thing? How many more people must die before insurance companies get the message that adequate coverage isn’t a luxury, but a life-saver?”
Email us at EDCHoldsInsuranceAccountable@yahoo.com with your story of denial of residential care in your state. We will collect your stories to leverage change.
Eleven years is far too long to wait. Join us and STAND UP now to the sweeping denial of residential treatment coverage for eating disorders.
About the EDC
The Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action is working in Washington, D.C., to increase awareness, educate policymakers, and promote understanding about the disabling and life-threatening effects of eating disorders. Our mission is to advance the federal recognition of eating disorders as a public health priority. www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org
For the full article, click here
On December 2nd EDC joined the mental health community in saying good-bye to Patrick Kennedy - a champion of reducing stigma against those with mental disorders and substance abuse problems. We celebrated his accomplishments - such as the passage of mental health parity - and wished him well in his new endeavors.
Click here for pictures from the event
Eating Disorders Coalition (EDC)
Announces Board Leadership for 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact:
David Jaffe
Executive Director, EDC
202-543-9570
manager@eatingdisorderscoalition.org
(Washington, DC – January 14, 2011) The Eating Disorders Coalition (EDC) announced today that it has chosen Lisa Lilenfeld, Ph.D., a Fellow at the Academy for Eating Disorders, as President of the EDC, effective January 1, 2011 for a two year term. Lilenfeld had served on the EDC Board of Directors for two years.
On her election to Chair of the Board Lilenfeld commented, “After dedicating my career to the treatment and research of eating disorders for the past 20 years, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to make a much greater impact than I ever thought possible as an individual clinician, researcher or educator. I am fortunate to have come on board with the EDC after many years of their hard work creating the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act, which is now steadily gaining support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
About the EDC
The Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action is working in Washington, D.C., to increase awareness, educate policymakers, and promote understanding about the disabling and life-threatening effects of eating disorders. Our mission is to advance the federal recognition of eating disorders as a public health priority. www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org
For the full article, click here
Join in our Post-Lobby Day Letter
Writing Campaign!
Tired of . . .
insurance companies refusing to cover your treatment?
doctors being clueless about the seriousness of your eating disorder?
teachers and coaches at school not knowing how to respond to you as you suffer from the despair of an eating disorder?
watching your daughter, son, mother, or sister struggle with an eating disorder and not be able to help?
Help us pass the FREED Act, which will change all this.
The Eating Disorder Coalition needs you!
Be part of our Letter Writing Campaign with the goal of 1000 letters to Congress!
To continue the enthusiastic advocacy generated during the Eating Disorders Coalition's biggest Lobby Day ever, we are launching our biggest Letter Writing Campaign with the goal of encouraging 1000 of you to use your voice and write a letter to Congress!
Click here to write yours today!
Click Here to see pictures from our April 2010 Lobby Day
April 27, 2010
Harkin, Klobuchar,
Franken Introduce
First Senate Bill to
Confront Eating
Disorders in the U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Al Franken (D-MN) introduced legislation today aimed at fighting and preventing eating disorders in the United States. The Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act is the first comprehensive legislative effort introduced in the Senate to confront the seriousness of these diseases and to jump start research as well as improve the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. It expands federal research, improves tracking and recording of the actual numbers of people suffering and dying from these diseases, provides training for a wide array of health professionals and educators to better identify and screen for eating disorders, creates a new patient advocacy program to help patients get proper care, authorizes grants for eating disorder prevention programs and builds on the mental health parity and health care reform bills to improve access to treatment, particularly for teens covered by Medicaid.
Click here for the full press release
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 3, 2008
VICTORY IN PASSING MENTAL
HEALTH PARITY!
The EDC applauds Congress for their commitment to eliminating discrimination in health care coverage against people suffering
from mental disorders. After tireless negotiations between
differing House and Senate versions, both chambers came together to pass mental health parity this year. This bill requires group health plans that currently offer coverage for mental health and substance-use disorders to provide those benefits in the same manner as benefits provided to all other medical and surgical procedures covered under the plan. It also prohibits group health plans from imposing discriminatory annual/lifetime dollar limits, copays and deductibles, or day and visit limits unless similar limitations or requirements are imposed for other medical and surgical benefits.
For the full article, click here
For More Information:
Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy, and Action
David Jaffe, Executive Director manager@eatingdisorderscoalition.org
202-543-9570
EDC Statement in Response to
Time.com article
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1963297,00.html
Contrary to what is concluded in this article, the Eating Disorders Coalition does not have a position on whether orthorexia is included as a separate category in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. As a Coalition of more than 35 member organizations we represent people with varied perspectives and opinions. Some of those people may support having orthorexia added as a diagnosis and some do not. As a Coalition then, we respect what researchers, clinicians and other key stakeholders decide on this front.
Our mission is to advance the federal recognition of eating disorders as a public health priority. One of our specific policy priorities is to promote federal support for improved access to care. We support policies and decisions, such as the FREED Act, that will maximize the likelihood that those suffering from eating disorders get the treatment they need.
We made a request to the editor of Time.com to write a correction that the Eating Disorders Coalition does not have a stance on whether orthorexia should be included as a category in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual.
Thank you.
Jeanine Cogan, Ph.D.
Policy Director
Eating Disorders Coalition
National Eating Disorders Association's National Bank of
Insurance Stories. It's time to talk about it.
With enthusiasm and appreciation, the AED Advocacy and Communication Committee announces the National Eating Disorders Association’s National Bank of Insurance Stories. It’s time to talk about it.
THE PROBLEM:
We have all faced it. Lack of treatment coverage at an appropriate level of care, premature discharge, and lack of adherence to professional guidelines, are experiences patients, clinicians, and families fight daily. Access to care is a fundamental, nationwide problem that frequently exacerbates the illness, destroying lives, while placing undue financial and emotional burden on so many.
A SOLUTION:
Insured patients and their families need a voice to communicate their experiences in the pursuit of treatment. The Advocacy and Communication Committee of the Academy for Eating Disorders urgently needs your help. We applaud NEDA for the development of the National Bank of Insurance Stories. The National Bank of Insurance Stories was created to document insurance struggles patients, families, and caregivers have faced. These stories will provide evidence of the breadth of this problem, and help to raise awareness. Providing an outlet to share the stories, we can help others know what has worked and what hasn’t, as well as to unite the community against the unconscionable policies and practices of insurance companies that discriminate against eating disorders treatment.
ACTION NEEDED:
With the cooperation of NEDA, AED, EDC, BEDA, IAEDP and others, the stories of the interface between patient, family, clinicians, and insurance companies can be heard. Please, consider taking up this mission with intent and with purpose. Please, spread the word about the NEDA Bank of Insurance stories. You can help by doing the following:
1) Refer your patients, families and colleagues to the following NEDA link:
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/uploads/NBIS%20eForm%20(fillable).pdf
2) Print this document and make it easily accessible to patients and their families.
3) Forward this to your colleagues, and encourage all to use their voice to make a difference.
4) Write letters to your local media informing them of NEDA’s National Bank of Insurance Stories.
Sincerely,
AED Advocacy and Communications Committee
House Passes Mental Health Parity Bill
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Eating Disorders Awareness Helps Mental Health Parity Pass in House Vote WASHINGTON March 6 2008 - Eating disorders were front and center in the debate leading to yesterday’s passage of mental health parity in the U.S. House of Representatives. The House passed the parity bill by a vote of 268 to 148. definitions of mental illness that would include eating disorders. A Senate bill passed last year offers fewer protections but is likely to become the final version that Congress will send for the president’s signature. The Eating Disorders Coalition has supported both House and Senate versions, but prefers the House bill. Yesterday’s action in the House marks the first time in 12 years that mental health parity has been brought to a vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to schedule a vote, reversing the long-held opposition of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The EDC was in the front row during yesterday’s rally at the Capitol. Speakers included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Rep. Jim Ramstad, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, and David Wellstone. The audience included singer-songwriter Carole King and U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken. Since the beginning of the 110th Congress, the Eating Disorders Coalition and other mental health advocates have had numerous opportunities to bring the issue to the attention of congressional committees. EDC President Kitty Westin testified in Congress and spoke at a parity rally with Speaker Pelosi in 2007, recalling the loss of her daughter after the family’s insurance company denied treatment for Anna Westin’s eating disorder. EDC Executive Director Marc Lerro says, “We made our points so often that members of Congress started making our points for us. In committee meetings, Republicans and Democrats alike described how parity could affect people with eating disorders.” David Wellstone, founder of Wellstone Action, campaigned aggressively for the passage of the House bill. He often cited eating disorders as an example of mental health conditions that may not be fully covered under the weaker Senate bill. Wellstone was critical of the Senate bill and refused to allow the bill to be named in memory of his father, the late Senator Paul Wellstone. that you can’t leave people out. You can’t have people like Kitty Westin, who was his friend and my friend, who’s daughter had an eating disorder and went in and was told ‘we have to figure out if this is a medical necessity.’” During a national speaking tour in support of parity, members of Congress in several major cities appeared with speakers who had first- hand experience with eating disorders. In Washington, D.C., the EDC hosted educational briefings and sent mailings that also kept the issue before policymakers at the Capitol. Last week, the Coalition hosted a briefing in the House of Representatives titled “Eating Disorders: From Stigma to Science,” which drew a capacity bipartisan audience. Next, negotiations between the House and Senate must close the gap between the two bills before a final piece of legislation can be sent to the president. Rep. Kennedy is willing to compromise. He told NPR, “I’m not an all-or-nothing person. I want something, and then I can add to it next year, and the year after, and the year after that. That’s the way Congress works. I’ve watched my father over the years. I’ve taken lessons.” Pictured from top: EDC Policy Director Jeanine Cogan thanks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for support. Parity speakers in front row: Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. Jim Ramstad, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rosalynn Carter, David Wellstone, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. U.S. Senate candidate and parity supporter Al Franken with Jeanine Cogan. Photos by M. Geneva Murray (Mar 5 2008). |
The House version of a national mental health parity bill includes broad 
Wellstone told National Public Radio’s Julie Rovner, “My dad always believed