Saying goodbye to the BMI

HFMA’s Voices in Healthcare Finance

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a long-standing measure used in healthcare. But this height/weight ratio was originally meant for statistical use only and has no proven standing as a measure of health. Yet a patient's BMI is used to make critical decisions about their care. In this episode, Dr. Holly Ann Russell, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and medical director for the Center of Community Health and Prevention, discusses what measures providers should be focusing on instead and why weighing patients at every visit is unnecessary.