Posts Tagged ‘access to care’
February 12, 2025 — The revolution in obesity care brought on by semaglutide and tirzepatide is beginning to look a little shaky, says Tina Reed on Axios. The U.S. healthcare system is skimming profits from them, thus sowing disparities, and quite possibly dimming the prospects for broad gains in health. Peter Antall is Chief Medical Officer at the digital […]
February 9, 2025 — April this year will mark 20 years of patient advocacy in obesity by the Obesity Action Coalition. We’ve spent this weekend with the OAC board, looking back and looking forward at advocacy to educate, elevate, and support the voices of people living with obesity. So this is a good time to ask what has changed […]
February 3, 2025 — A new study in JAMA Network Open makes one thing very clear. Most people who take GLP-1 medicines for obesity quit within a year. Most who take them for diabetes are less likely to quit. Why are the disparities in GLP-1 medicines for obesity so great in comparison to their use for diabetes? It’s all […]
February 2, 2025 — On Friday, the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research documented a remarkable reversal in attitudes about obesity medicines. Roughly half of the public believes “it’s a good idea” to use obesity medicines for obesity or weight-related health conditions. Likewise, most Americans believe Medicare and Medicaid should cover the use of these drugs. Only about 20% […]
January 29, 2025 — FDA yesterday approved Ozempic (semaglutide) to prevent kidney failure and death in persons with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. This fits with one of the five trends for this year: the steady expansion of health benefits for advanced medicines used in obesity and diabetes. But note that this approval covers the use of […]
January 28, 2025 — It is fascinating to watch the public discourse about newly proposed criteria from the Lancet Commission for a clinical diagnosis of obesity unfold. The headline is easy. “It’s time to move beyond BMI alone.” The response to that idea has been clear and unmistakable: “What took so long?” But then comes the hard part that […]
January 20, 2025 — Two years ago, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed a bill into law to provide better access to obesity care under the state’s Medicaid program. This includes access to GLP-1 medicines. Now, it seems, the state is flouting the law. So people with obesity who rely on Medicaid are left out in the cold if they […]
January 16, 2025 — This will be an interesting year for drug pricing, especially for obesity medicines – if you can even figure out what is really going on with them. It appears that list prices for Ozempic (semaglutide), Mounjaro (tirzepatide), and Zepbound (also tirzepatide) have all gone up this year. The Wegovy (semaglutide) list price did not change. […]
January 13, 2025 — Many years of working on obesity has taught us one thing. Success does not come easily. And yet in this new year, it appears that the new administration in Washington will have an opportunity to claim an easy win on obesity. CMS has a new rule for obesity drugs that can become final in the […]
January 12, 2025 — Last week we got another glimpse of incremental progress in coverage for obesity medicines in health insurance plans. CMS announced that Medicare drug plans (Part D or Medicare Advantage) could now cover Zepbound (tirzepatide) when doctors prescribe it to patients for obesity and sleep apnea. This is not the opening of floodgates. It is movement […]