I have written before about the Pritikin Spa and Longevity Centre in Florida that I have personally attended. Well I read this press release today which I think is pretty stunning news even although it dosen't apply to me, sadly!

In a groundbreaking decision, Medicare will pay for Pritikin’s intensive diet-and-exercise programs for qualifying individuals with a history or risk of cardiovascular events, the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services has disclosed. The decision makes the Pritikin Longevity Centre & Spa, located in Miami, FLA, the first and only residential healthy-lifestyle education program in the country to offer Medicare-covered intensive cardiac rehabilitation, or ICR.

The criteria for coverage of an intensive cardiac rehabilitation program by Medicare are stringent, including such requirements as peer-reviewed, published research demonstrating that the program reduces the need for bypass surgery as well as significantly lowers cholesterol levels, triglycerides, body mass index, and blood pressure, and the need for medications for cholesterol, blood pressure, and diabetes. Over the past 35 years, more than 115 studies have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Archives of Internal Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine, proving that participants in the Pritikin Program achieve these and other significant health benefits, including substantial and sustained weight loss.