
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.
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Sep 18, 2026
Episode 132: Clinical Conversations: Using EPSDT to Improve Access to Obesity Pharmacotherapy in Youth
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Suzanne CudaHOST
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?

Valerie O'HaraGUEST
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.

Valerie O'HaraGUEST
And thinking about using it for treatment where my eyes were like, really? So this was during COVID.

Valerie O'HaraGUEST
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.

Valerie O'HaraGUEST
And we were the first ones trying it and all of those sorts of things and lots of learning curve.

Valerie O'HaraGUEST
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.