SAN FRANCISCO — Parents of overweight and obese children face a major burden in navigating a complex health care system that does little to help them change their kids’ course. But a growing number of employers and health insurers are trying to make it easier to get such help.
Health insurer Humana Inc. and consulting firm Accenture are the latest companies to sign on to a pilot program that offers families with obese children health coverage for at least four follow-up visits with a pediatrician and four visits with a registered dietician a year.
A handful of large employers such as PepsiCo, Mars and Owens Corning also are testing the benefit, with health insurer Aetna Inc. recruiting the latter two to participate. At the end of the project, analysts at Emory University will evaluate its effectiveness.
The initiative is the brainchild of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a New York-based joint venture between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation that aims to reduce childhood obesity.
“Childhood obesity is an epidemic,” said Ginny Ehrlich, executive director of the alliance. “There’s no single cause or single solution. We need everyone at the table to really solve this in this country.”
The group’s 1-year-old initiative has reached 1.5 million kids so far. Its goal is to make the benefit accessible to 6.2 million, or 25 percent, of the nation’s children and teenagers by 2012.
