- Healthbeat
- Posts
- MAHA wants doctors to prioritize nutrition
MAHA wants doctors to prioritize nutrition
Senior HHS leaders address MAHA agenda at Atlanta health care conference
Rebecca Grapevine
September 18, 2025
Hi, Atlanta!
Health Connect South, a one-day conference for senior health care leaders, researchers, doctors, and students, this year drew at least five senior Trump administration health care officials who touted the Make America Health Again agenda to an Atlanta audience.
Following Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz’s keynote speech, leaders from the Health Resources and Services Administration, which focuses on medical services for isolated and vulnerable people, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration talked about how their agencies fit in.
Dr. Travis Smith said HRSA is focused on working with medical schools and accrediting bodies to ensure that all physicians are educated in helping patients improve nutrition, a key priority of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We want to teach urologists, OB-GYNs, pediatricians, so they can have their directed discussions on nutrition and diet specific to that specialty,” Smith said. The agency is also working with the CMS to ensure physician time spent on nutrition with patients is reimbursable.
Smith said the initiative is not political, but aimed at transforming “us from one of the sickest nations in the world to the healthiest.”
Thomas Engels touted HRSA’s Maternal Infant and Home Visiting Program, which aims to help teach people how to be better parents.
“It is definitely a MAHA-driven program, because it helps with nutrition, it helps with physical activities. It helps people take care of themselves,” Engels said. “You just need a little help.”
That might resonate with Georgia public health leaders, who have touted the expansion of the states’ own home visiting pilot program. The state legislature increased the budget for the program by about $3 million this year, which will allow it to expand from 50 to 75 counties.
Smith and Engels touted the benefits of federally qualified health centers, which provide low-cost care to the un- and underinsured, and said they visited Atlanta’s Mercy Care this week. Engels said he hopes his agency can help increase the number of physicians who work at such facilities.
ICYMI
Here’s a recap of the latest reporting from Healthbeat:
Do you use Google to find the latest news and information about public health? Want to make sure you see stories from Healthbeat? You can go to this link to add Healthbeat as a preferred source, and we'll show up in your search tabs more often. Thanks for being a reader!
The Grapevine 🍇
Solana James staffs the Healthbeat table at the Health Connect South conference in Atlanta on Wednesday. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! (Rebecca Grapevine / Healthbeat)
What I’m hearing from readers:
Today, I attempted to get a COVID-19 vaccination in Atlanta, GA and was required to get a prescription. Even though I am older than 65, I was told that Georgia law requires everyone to get a prescription. After searching the internet and making calls to several state (Georgia) agencies, I found your article. It is the only explanation that I found.
What Do You Know?
Test your knowledge of public health topics. Today’s question:
Hepatitis B vaccines are on the agenda at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting this week. Which of the following is not a way Hepatitis B is transmitted? |
Tell Me More
Have you tried to get an updated Covid vaccine? Tell me about it. Were you able to get the shot – and how? What barriers did you run into? Send me your news tips, too. You can reach me at [email protected] or reply to this email.
In health,
Rebecca
Looking for your next read? Check out these other great newsletters.
|
|
|
|
Reply