Posts Tagged ‘adult obesity’

Medicare Moves Upstream

December 13th, 2011

Keeping off the pounds is tough at any age. Now seniors are getting a helping hand from Medicare.  Last month Medicare announced that it’s adding coverage for nutritional and behavioral counseling for those who are obese as measured by body mass index or BMI.  BMI is a tool which measures weight status for adults- and it’s broken into several categories: Underweight (Below 18.5), Normal (18.5 – 24.9), Overweight (25.0 – 29.9) and Obese (30.0 and above).  This new program for Medicare beneficiaries is for folks with a BMI of 30 or more.    You can use this BMI calculator to see where you stand.  

The objective of this new preventive coverage is to reduce the impact of obesity and chronic disease among the 30% of folks men and women within Medicare are obese.  For Medicare beneficiaries with a BMI over 30, counseling coverage includes: 1) One face-to-face visit every week for the first month; One face-to-face visit every other week for months 2 – 6; and One face-to-face visit every month for months 7 – 12 if the individual meets their weight-loss goals.  Additional information on this exciting new preventive coverage can be found on the Medicare website. 

Why is this new benefit important? Because most states now have adult obesity rates over 25%- resulting in higher risks for stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, respiratory diseases and arthritis.  In other words- obesity results in all kinds of bad health outcomes and cause a host of expensive down-stream treatment costs.

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Yet Another Obesity Call to Action

August 19th, 2010

You probably think I sound like a broken record because I’m always writing about obesity…  but it really is the dominant public health issue of our time.  Last week, the CDC released its latest Vital Signs report called “State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults – United States, 2009,”…  which finds that nine states had an obesity rate of 30 percent or higher in 2009. In comparison, no state had an obesity rate of 30% or more 10 years ago.  The report also finds that people who are obese incurred $1,429 per person more in medical costs every year when compared to people of healthy weight, and that the nation’s total medical costs of obesity were $147 billion in 2008.  OK that’s the problem- so what’s the solution?

 

The solution is a combination of public policy changes and community planning, combined with better education and personal responsibility.  For example, people need to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer foods high in fat and sugar; drink more water instead of sugary drinks; be more physically active; and watch less TV.  As a society, we need to promote policies and programs at school, at work and in the community that make the healthy choice the easy choice.  You can read a lot more on the CDC’s Vital Signs Adult Obesity website.

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AZ Obesity Update

July 6th, 2010

The Trust for America’s Health released their annual obesity report.  Overall, the national trend toward increasing obesity rates continued it’s march forward.  Arizona ranked in the middle of the pack, but the pack itself in increasingly unhealthy.  More than two-thirds of states have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent.

Most Americans think that being overweight is a simple matter of personal responsibility.  While it’s clear that people need to make healthy choices and get more exercise if we’re going to turn this thing around, there are some other factors.  Healthy foods cost more than junk food and good food is hard to find in many neighborhoods.  But you can be sure that cheap processed foods are available everywhere.  Also, finding safe, accessible places to be physically active can be a challenge.  While everyone faces barriers to healthy choices, the obstacles are often higher for people with lower incomes and less education.

Those of you that work on public health prevention should become familiar with the key elements in the report, especially the intervention strategies  in the second half of the report.  By the way…  our Empower Pack is an example of the kind of strategy that we need more of to turn this ship around.

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