NICHQ CEO Commends White House Childhood Obesity Task Force's Action Plan
May 2010
NICHQ President and CEO Charles J. Homer MD, MPH, today released the following statement about the new interagency report on childhood obesity:
Yesterday the White House released the action plan from its Interagency Childhood Obesity Task Force, Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation. According to their release, “this report provides a national road map that will help us solve the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight.”
Happily, there is a section on the role of health care. It emphasizes:
- BMI monitoring
- Appropriate counseling methods
- Adequate reimbursement (and notes provisions in health care reform that will assure this)
- In terms of treatment, it references the expert recommendations (see NICHQ Implementation Guide), the use of the chronic care model and the USPSTF recommendations on effective treatment programs.
This looks like a solid set of recommendations, embedded in a broader set that calls for multi-sector engagement from federal to community, public and private organizations.
