I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3057 
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue to Federal 
agencies guidelines for developing procedures and requirements relating 
to certain primary care Federal health professionals completing con-
tinuing medical education on nutrition and to require Federal agencies 
to submit annual reports relating to such guidelines, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 14, 2015 
Mr. GRIJALVA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to issue to Federal agencies guidelines for developing 
procedures and requirements relating to certain primary 
care Federal health professionals completing continuing 
medical education on nutrition and to require Federal 
agencies to submit annual reports relating to such guide-
lines, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Education and Train-
ing for Health Act of 2015’’ or the ‘‘EAT for Health Act 
of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) According to 2013 national health expendi-
ture data, United States health care spending in-
creased 3.6 percent to reach $2.9 trillion, or $9,255 
per person, and accounted for 17.4 percent of Gross 
Domestic Product (GDP). 
(2) According to the Institute of Medicine, in 
2012 estimates of health care costs attributed over 
75 percent of national health expenditures to treat-
ment for chronic diseases. 
(3) A March 2003 report from the World 
Health Organization concluded diet was a major 
cause of chronic diseases. 
(4) Seven out of 10 deaths among people in the 
United States each year are from chronic diseases 
such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and 
cancer. 
(5) According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, in 2013 heart disease was the 
leading cause of death for American adults. Approxi-
mately 600,000 American adults die each year from 
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cardiovascular disease. Coronary heart disease alone 
costs American taxpayers $108.9 billion each year. 
(6) Research has shown that following a health-
ful diet can not only reduce symptoms related to 
cardiovascular disease but can also actually reverse 
damage done to the arteries. 
(7) According to the Journal of the American 
Medical Association, two-thirds of adults in the 
United States are currently overweight, and half of 
those overweight individuals are obese. One in three 
children are overweight, and one-fifth of children are 
obese. The United States spends about $147 to 
$210 billion a year on obesity related diseases, in-
cluding type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, 
and arthritis. 
(8) An estimated 29.1 million people in the 
United States have diabetes. Another 86 million 
American adults have prediabetes. The Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention predicts that one in 
three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes at 
some point in their lives. Total estimated costs of di-
agnosed diabetes have increased 41 percent, to $245 
billion in 2012 from $174 billion in 2007. 
(9) According to the American Cancer Society, 
there will be an estimated 1,658,370 new cancer 
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cases diagnosed and 589,430 cancer deaths in the 
United States in 2015. That is equivalent to about 
1,620 deaths per day and accounts for nearly 1 of 
every 4 deaths. The Agency for Healthcare Research 
and Quality (AHRQ) estimates that the direct med-
ical costs for cancer in the United States in 2011 
were $88.7 billion. 
(10) According to the Journal of the American 
College of Nutrition, in 2008 physicians felt inad-
equately trained to provide proper nutrition advice. 
Ninety-four percent felt nutrition counseling should 
be included during primary care visits, but only 14 
percent felt adequately trained to provide such coun-
seling. 
(11) A 1985 National Academy of Sciences re-
port recommended that all medical schools require at 
least 25 contact hours of nutrition education. Ac-
cording to a 2009 national survey of medical colleges 
published in Academic Medicine, only 38 percent of 
medical schools met these minimum standards by re-
quiring 25 hours of nutrition education as part of 
their general curricula in 2004. By 2010, that num-
ber had shrunk to 27 percent. In addition, 30 per-
cent of United States medical schools required a 
dedicated nutrition course in 2004. Most recently, 
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only 25 percent of such schools required such a 
course in 2010. 
(12) According to the Journal of Nutrition in 
Clinical Practice in 2010, more than half of grad-
uating medical students felt their nutrition edu-
cation was insufficient. 
(13) Recognizing the importance of nutrition, 
Healthy People 2020—the Federal Government’s 
framework for a healthier Nation—includes a goal 
(NWS–6) to increase the proportion of physician of-
fice visits that include counseling or education re-
lated to nutrition or weight. According to Healthy 
People 2020, only 13.8 percent of physician office 
visits included counseling about nutrition or diet 
(2010 latest year available). 
(14) According to Mission: Readiness, one in 
four Americans cannot serve in the military due to 
weight. For those serving, the military discharged 
4,300 active-duty personnel due to weight problems 
in 2012. 
(15) According to the Journal of American 
Health Promotion, the military spends well over $1 
billion a year to treat weight-related health problems 
such as heart disease and diabetes through its 
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TRICARE health insurance for active duty per-
sonnel, reservists, retirees and their families. 
(16) According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, American Indian or Alaska Na-
tive adults are 60 percent more likely to be obese 
and over twice as likely as to have diabetes com-
pared to White adults. 
(17) According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, American Indian or Alaska Na-
tive adults have the highest rate of diabetes among 
all minority groups at 15.9 percent. 
SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 
GUIDELINES, AND FEDERAL AGENCIES AN-
NUAL REPORTS, RELATING TO CERTAIN PRI-
MARY 
CARE 
FEDERAL 
HEALTH 
PROFES-
SIONALS COMPLETING CONTINUING MED-
ICAL EDUCATION ON NUTRITION. 
(a) GUIDELINES.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services shall issue guidelines to Federal 
agencies for developing procedures and requirements to 
ensure that every primary care health professional em-
ployed full-time for such agencies have continuing edu-
cation courses relating to nutrition (as described in sub-
section (c)). 
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(1) CONTINUING EDUCATION.—The term ‘‘con-
tinuing education’’ is defined as courses that meet 
requirements for Continuing Medical Education 
(CME) or Continuing Education (CE) by medical or 
nurse practitioner professional organizations or cer-
tified accrediting bodies. 
(2) NURSE PRACTITIONER.—The term ‘‘nurse 
practitioner’’ has the meaning given such term in 
section 1861(aa)(5) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395x(aa)(5)). 
(3) PHYSICIAN.—The term ‘‘physician’’ has the 
meaning given such term in section 1861(r)(1) of 
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(r)(1)). 
(4) PRIMARY CARE HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.— 
The term ‘‘primary care health professional’’ means 
a physician or nurse practitioner who furnishes pri-
mary care services. 
(5) PRIMARY CARE SERVICES.—The term ‘‘pri-
mary care services’’ has the meaning given such 
term in section 1842(i)(4) of the Social Security Act 
(42 U.S.C. 1395u(i)(4)), but shall include such serv-
ices furnished by a nurse practitioner as would oth-
erwise be included if furnished by a physician. 
Æ 
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