Posts Tagged ‘Obamacare’

Deflecting Cheap Shots

July 12, 2015 — Last Monday, we wrote about an article in the New York Times chock-full of cheap shots at people who devote their medical careers to caring for people living with obesity. We expected that most people would accept that biased reporting at face value and go right along with their faux scandal. We were wrong. The […]

Shifting Benchmarks to Cover Obesity Care

July 8, 2015 — One bit of encouraging news about access to evidence-based obesity care is coming out of Colorado. It relates to benchmarks for health plans under the Affordable Care Act. Colorado has just adopted a new benchmark, for 2017 and beyond, which will take it from requiring no obesity treatment services in health insurance plans to requiring that […]

OMG, They’re Paying Doctors to Deal with Obesity?!

July 6, 2015 — The New York Times describes a booming business in weight management because the Affordable Care Act has health insurance paying doctors to deal with obesity. Through anecdotes and interviews with people who have something to sell, they paint a vaguely disturbing picture of flourishing “for-profit diet clinics” that operate on “the fringe of the medical establishment.” […]

Access to Care Matters for Obesity and Diabetes

April 2, 2015 — We are constantly hearing about obesity and the growing burden of chronic diseases that come from it. So with more than a third of the U.S. population already affected by obesity, it makes sense that access to care to prevent or slow the progression of chronic diseases resulting from obesity is urgently needed. By the […]

Will Wellness Kill Obamacare?

December 19, 2014 — Will wellness kill Obamacare? Some observers are fretting that unless HR departments get to bypass concerns of the EEOC about discriminatory wellness programs, then “the whole point of the Affordable Care Act” will be subverted. The Business Roundtable — an organization of big business CEOs — is hopping mad that the EEOC has sued Honeywell because […]

Will the New Surgeon General Be an Obesity Activist?

December 18, 2014 — The new Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek Murthy, told the senators in his confirmation hearing that obesity will be a signature issue for his four-year term. The nature of the confirmation process  demands that a nominee say as little as possible. The nomination dragged on for a year mainly because he was on record prior to his nomination […]

Going to Walmart for Tube Socks and Healthcare

October 11, 2014 — If you have any doubt about how fast healthcare is changing, consider this: Walmart plans to be the number one healthcare provider in the industry. Earlier this year, Walmart opened a half-dozen of their own convenient care clinics in Texas and South Carolina stores. Six more are on their way to opening before the end of […]

How to Penalize Pre-Existing Conditions under Obamacare

June 1, 2014 — Health insurance penalties for pre-existing conditions are supposed to be a thing of the past under the Affordable Care Act (the ACA or Obamacare). And things are clearly much better for people who used to be all but uninsurable because of a pre-existing condition. Even so, ingenious insurers are finding ways to make people pay extra […]

Doctors Get the Final Say on Wellness

May 29, 2014 — Under regulations for employer wellness programs, doctors get the final say on wellness. This key point floats to the top of a lengthy point-counterpoint discussion just published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Both Morgan Downey and John Cawley seem to agree that the provisions for employer wellness programs under the Affordable Care […]

NEW: USPSTF Recommends Obesity Treatment for Heart Risk

May 13, 2014 — The USPSTF (Unites States Preventative Services Task Force) has published yet another recommendation for obesity treatment — in draft form. The recommendation is behavioral counseling for people with heart disease risk and excess weight or obesity. Dietitians and other weight management professionals, take note. This will create yet more opportunities to help people with excess weight […]