2022 Atlanta Board of Trustees Meeting

NEHI Project on Obesity Treatment “Finding Effective Coverage and Payment Models for Employer Adoption”

Ad Hoc Advisory Board – May 3, 2022

NEHI is organizing a project on obesity treatment that will outline pathways to improved obesity outcomes for patients through effective provider payment models and payment support for the wide range of obesity treatment and weight management interventions and tools now available. The project will specifically focus on payment support from self-insured employers. As an initial test of the project’s goals and approach NEHI is inviting a select group of key stakeholders to a 90-minute discussion session, (an “ad hoc ad board”) that will be conducted over Zoom and under Chatham House rules. A date for the Ad Board will be selected via Doodle Poll sent to invited participants. Why focus on employers? Employers are in a unique position to demonstrate the potential of obesity treatment and weight management through purchasing decisions they make on employee health insurance plan design and on other benefits offered to employees. Directly or indirectly, employer purchasing can influence utilization of the entire and growing spectrum of obesity-related services now available, from obesity care delivered in person or through virtual care, to specialty obesity medicine, utilization of anti-obesity medications, utilization of digital health tools, to weight loss surgery and follow-up care. The goal of the NEHI project is to identify approaches or pathways through which employers’ payment support can achieve better health outcomes through obesity treatment and weight management, at a scale greater than the low scale at which obesity treatment is delivered today. These pathways should point the way to further demonstration of clinically effective, cost-effective strategies, if not to outright implementation by employers, and generate recommendations for action by other health care payers such as commercial insurers and public programs. Key Questions for the Ad Hoc Ad Board Discussion at the April Ad Hoc Ad Board will be a brief, preliminary discussion of three general topics. Insights from the discussion will inform NEHI’s overall scope of work for the project on obesity treatment. The three areas are: 1) Care coordination and integration of services Employers have multiple channels for purchasing services as benefits to employees. How are obesity treatment and weight management services purchased today? How are these purchasing choices influencing coordination of care for patients? (For example: how is virtual care coordinated with in- person care?) How important is care coordination and integration of services to better outcomes expected by employees and by employer-purchasers?

1