Skip to main content
Valerie O'Hara

Valerie O'Hara

Valerie O'Hara, DO, FAAP, FOMA, DABOM is a pediatric obesity medicine physician at Knownwell in Maine, known for her work on Medicaid/EPSDT access to obesity pharmacotherapy for youth.

Sep 18, 2026

4:40
So, Dr. O'Hara, can you please describe why you and the other authors wanted to do this review and how you think this article helps you navigate through the system?
4:51
Yeah, our motivation and reason is pretty straightforward in that it really came out of necessity, right? I first learned about EPSDT and my light bulbs went on during one of the main AAP chapter board meetings when a representative from MaineCare, which is our Medicaid here, started talking about EPSDT.
5:12
And thinking about using it for treatment where my eyes were like, really? So this was during COVID.
5:18
And initially in Maine, we used it when we didn't have a lot of FDA approved medications at the time, but we did use it to improve reimbursement for our interdisciplinary team.
5:27
So that was my first go at EPSDT, which again was cumbersome.
5:32
And we were the first ones trying it and all of those sorts of things and lots of learning curve.
5:37
But certainly we had a follow-up and I reached out to this person and I said, can I use it for medication? When we started to get medications, FDA approved for children for obesity.
10:39
So who wants to take that one?

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click “Accept All” to consent, or “Decline non-essential” to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.