OAC Blog

If you have Medicare but don’t have prescription drug coverage, this year’s Medicare Open Enrollment may be a good time to take another look at Medicare Part D. Maybe you didn’t take many prescription medications when you first became eligible for Medicare. Maybe you had coverage somewhere else. Or maybe paying a monthly premium for
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Medicare Open Enrollment begins Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 7. Each year, this is your opportunity to review your Medicare health and prescription drug coverage and make changes for the year ahead. Even if you’re happy with your current plan, it’s important to take another look. Plans can change their costs, formularies, pharmacy networks
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Understanding how obesity can affect your health can bring up questions. How is it connected to blood pressure? What does it mean for heart health? How can treatment help? Having clear, trusted information is a helpful place to start. The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) has newly updated three fact sheets to help you better understand
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Cigna is a healthcare company that helps employers and individuals navigate health insurance, prescription drug coverage and access to care. That should make the company especially aware of what losing coverage can mean for the people who rely on it. Unfortunately, its own employees living with obesity have now lost access to an important treatment
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For decades, Starbucks has made employee healthcare benefits part of what sets the company apart, including offering benefits to eligible part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week. Those benefits have helped the company build a reputation as an employer that invests in its people — and employees like Angel valued that investment. For
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Access to science-based obesity care should not depend on where someone lives or what type of health coverage they have. That is why the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is recognizing Indiana for taking an important step toward expanding access to obesity treatment for eligible Medicaid beneficiaries. Indiana announced that its Medicaid program will participate in
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September is PCOS Awareness Month, a time to recognize the people living with polycystic ovary syndrome and raise awareness about the need for better understanding, research and care. Earlier this year, polycystic ovary syndrome was renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). For Elizabeth Zibilich, who lives with the condition, the change feels like a step
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Across the country, changes to obesity medication coverage are putting access to treatment at risk, and patients in Massachusetts are feeling the impact. Beginning July 1, MassHealth stopped covering medications used only for the treatment of obesity or overweight.  These decisions and insurance policies are more than words on paper. For patients, they can mean
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September is National Childhood Obesity Month, a time to recognize the experiences of children and families affected by obesity and the importance of compassionate care. For Jeannie, this is personal. As a mother of two daughters affected by obesity, she has watched Annie and Abbie navigate weight bias at school, assumptions about what they can
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For years, Carol tried different approaches to manage her weight. She tried keto, cutting out carbohydrates and even severely restricting how much she ate. Some approaches worked for a while, but they were difficult to maintain. Then, during a routine physical, her doctor offered her Zepbound. “It was a game changer,” Carol said. For the
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PepsiCo has reportedly decided to end coverage of GLP-1 medications used for weight loss for some employees beginning in October. These medications are science-based treatments for obesity, a complex, chronic disease, with weight loss being one outcome of treatment. Restricting coverage threatens access to medically necessary obesity care. The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is calling
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Story from OAC Member Meladee N. If you had asked me years ago whether I thought I would spend decades searching for the right obesity treatment, my answer would have been a definite “yes.” Over the course of my life, I followed commercial weight-loss programs, medically supervised diets and plans that promised lasting results. My
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