Current Events in April 2024

In September 2023, Costco announced its healthcare partnership with Sesame, which was designed to offer members access to healthcare – regardless of their insurance status – at a discounted rate. 

Now, the membership club has announced a new weight loss program exclusively for its members. 

In addition to receiving nutrition guides and recommendations, clinical consultations, and an individualized plan, those who are eligible can also receive prescriptions for weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. 

Meaghan Hafner, vice president of health care insights & strategy at Human8, a consultative agency focused on driving customer centricity, told ConsumerAffairs that the move will increase competition among health care providers and the retail health care landscape. 

"With this greater competition comes greater options for consumers, and more opportunity for consumers to feel supported in their needs," Hafner said. "For brands anywhere in the health care landscape, it is vital that they understand what matters to consumers so they can be in lock-step when developing strategies and offerings that meet those needs." 

How does it work? 

The new weight loss program is available exclusively for Costco members and is designed to offer consumers an individualized weight loss plan. 

Members will have the freedom to select a weight loss doctor or specialist to work with throughout the program. Once they do, they can schedule a meeting with their provider to discuss weight loss goals, health history, and other relevant information about the program. 

If the specialist decides that a weight loss drug is appropriate, they’ll send off the prescription. Once members receive their prescription, they can begin treatment, while also having ongoing access to and support from their weight loss specialist. 

In addition to increasing access to weight loss drugs, the subscription plan will offer members advice on nutrition and exercise tailored specifically to their goals and needs. They will also have unlimited access to their specialists to ask any questions, help plan meals, discuss different treatment options, and more. 

"We are seeing a shift in consumers' mindset around health and wellness, and that they want to have a leading role in their personal health," Hafner told ConsumerAffairs. "With this increased accessibility, consumers are able to take a more leading role in and ownership in their health." 

Subscription details

Interested members can sign up for a three-month subscription, which will cost $179, or $60 per month. With the subscription, members receive:

• A video consultation with a weight loss doctor or specialist 

• GLP-1 or other weight loss medications, as appropriate

• Insurance coordination for prescription authorization

• Ongoing support via unlimited messaging, nutrition, and exercise guidance

• Lab orders, if needed

The cost of prescriptions and any necessary lab work are not included in the subscription price. Sesame can work with consumers to assist with any pre-authorizations needed by their insurance companies to cover medication costs. 

However, members without insurance will have to pay full price for the drugs. On the website, Sesame explains that these drugs can run consumers anywhere from $950 to $1,600 per month out of pocket. 

ConsumerAffairs, the reviews platform whose content and tools give consumers an advantage when making difficult purchases, has named 12 more companies winners of its quarterly Buyer's Choice Awards, based on AI-assisted decoding of consumer reviews in the previous 12 months.

Awards this quarter went to companies serving three high-stakes aspects of homeownership—home safety, pest control, and flooring—and also companies that sell hearing aids, a category that’s grown harder for consumers to navigate due to new OTC offerings. 

"Buying decisions that consumers make during significant life events are what ConsumerAffairs covers, our sole beat," said Zac Carman, CEO of ConsumerAffairs. "Our Buyer's Choice Awards signify the companies that are really good at helping consumers make that one-time investment in something they’ve not had to understand until now."

Each Buyer’s Choice Award is created after rigorous analysis of reviews reveals what aspects of that particular industry’s buying journey are most important to buyers. “The Buyer’s Choice Awards winners are proven by reviews and ratings to fulfill their customers' handful of super-high-priority needs,” Carman said.

These five winners swept their industry’s awards by receiving each award given in their category:

Empire Today won all the flooring awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, Best for Installation, Best Speed of Service and Best Value for Price.  

Orkin Pest Control took home each of the pest control awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, Best Speed of Service and Best Value for Price.

Vivint won each award given in home alarms: Best Customer Service, Best Equipment, Best for Installation and Best Monitoring.

Finally, Hear.com and Starkey Hearing Aids won all of their category awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff and Best Value for Price.

Criteria

How did ConsumerAffairs calculate the Buyer's Choice Award winners?

In an era of rampant faked or unhelpful consumer reviews, reviews on ConsumerAffairs must be submitted by a verified reviewer and vetted by a human moderator for authenticity, minimum length and depth of insight. 

The Buyer’s Choice Awards methodology then uses sentence-by-sentence analysis of reviews published in the previous year to calculate satisfaction levels for each aspect. Experienced auditors confirmed the accuracy of the AI-assisted sentiment analysis. 

Each quarter in 2024, ConsumerAffairs will announce Buyer's Choice Awards in new categories and use its website to flag the winning companies with a signature badge designed to guide consumers in need to trusted companies. Winners of each Buyer's Choice Award are limited to three or fewer by the rigorous statistical bar for positive sentiment set by ConsumerAffairs.

Multiple winners

Who are the other multiple winners of 2024 Buyer's Choice Awards?

Flooring: National Floors Direct (four wins: Best Experience with Staff, Best for Installation, Best Speed of Service and Best Value for Price) and LL Flooring (four wins: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, Best for Installation, and Best Value for Price).

Pest Control: Bulwark Exterminating (three awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff and Best Speed of Service) and Hawx Pest Control (one award: Best Value for Price).

Home alarm: ADT (three awards: Best Customer Service, Best Equipment and Best Monitoring) and Vector Security (three awards: Best Customer Service, Best for Installation and Best Monitoring)

Hearing aids: Audicus (two wins: Best Customer Service and Best Experience with Staff)

For more information about the Buyer's Choice Awards and the recognized companies, please visit the awards page. One to three winners for each category will be recognized per industry, with new awards rolling out quarterly throughout 2024.

Able-bodied travelers probably never give it a second thought, but airline passengers who are dependent on wheelchairs count into the millions.

And while mishandled wheelchairs don't quite match up with the number of mishandled baggage, it is a big enough problem that United Airlines has decided that it – maybe alone – can make the situation better.

The airline has just released a new digital sizing tool designed to help its passengers determine the right aircraft for their wheelchair. To show it’s serious about this, United will refund the fare difference if someone has to pay more for an alternative flight with a larger cargo door.

Last year, United and United Express, together carried more than 200,000 checked wheelchairs, but the number of wheelchairs and scooters mishandled per 100 enplaned was 1.09. Comparatively, that metric might not create the headlines that United’s other recent problems (hydraulics, losing a wheel, etc.), but it is about 30% higher than Delta which has the best record in that category.

"The more we know about a customer's device, the more likely their experience will be a good one – from booking and check-in to the flight itself," said Linda Jojo, executive vice president and chief customer Officer for United. "These new tools and policies also set our employees up for success, especially those working on the ramp or at the gate."

How It Works

Anyone flying United who needs to bring a personal wheelchair on their flight can visit the United app or united.com and use the filters on the flight search results page before selecting their flight. 

Step two comes after clicking on the wheelchair filter tab near the upper portion of the screen, when customers enter the specific dimensions of their mobility device. At that point, the search results enter the picture to identify which flight options will accommodate those dimensions and let the customer know whether their wheelchair fits or not. 

But in situations where the size of aircraft cargo hold doors can’t handle a larger motorized wheelchair and the customer has to take a United flight with a higher fare that can accommodate their wheelchair on the same day and between the same origin and destination, the customer may seek a refund of the fare difference.

United to offer loaners when it damages a wheelchair, too

United is adding another plus for wheelchair/scooter users. For anyone who’s flying through George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport and finds that their wheelchair was damaged or delayed while traveling, the airline will provide an appropriate loaner wheelchair. 

The airline understands that wheelchairs tend to be tailor-fit for a person’s size, weight, frame, etc. and is currently testing specialized, adjustable Permobil cushions for loaner wheelchairs at its Houston hub that should improve comfort and stability.

The company said that is also reimbursing customers for transportation expenses should they choose to wait at a location other than the airport.

After chip stocks, the best bet on Wall Street in the first quarter of 2024 has been the price of gold. The precious metal, which began to rally in mid to late 2023, breached a new record Monday at $2,262.19 an ounce.

SPDR Gold Shares, the ETF that tracks the price of gold and which many investors use to purchase gold, has risen 8.5% over the last three months.

What’s behind the rally? The same reason many stock prices are also climbing. The latest inflation data reinforces the belief that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates as early as June. Analysts say lower interest rates make gold more attractive because fixed-income assets are less attractive.

Alex Ebkarian, COO and co-founder of Los Angeles-based Allegiance Gold, recently told ConsumerAffairs that gold also performs well in times of high inflation and the threat of recession – two other economic possibilities that can’t be completely ruled out. And then, there’s supply and demand.

“Gold’s finite supply and the worldwide demand for it by central banks, and even the perceived demand for it by BRICS nations, will keep the price of gold elevated in 2024,”Ebkarian said.

Optimism from the Fed

Gold investors also took heart from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments on Friday, when key inflation data came in a bit less than expected. Powell said the data for February was “more along the lines of what we want to see.”

Before rushing out to buy gold, however, it’s a good idea to do some research and get advice from a trusted and objective financial adviser. Robert Johnson, professor of finance at the Heider College of Business, at Creighton University, says there is an opportunity cost of investing in gold, since over time stocks tend to appreciate at a faster rate.

“While having a small position in precious metals may dampen portfolio volatility in the short-run, the tradeoff between slightly dampened volatility and the lost long-term return is certainly not a prudent one, particularly for Gen Z/millennials with long investing time horizons,” Johnson said.

Before selecting a gold broker, investors might want to check out what the experts at ConsumerAffairs found when they looked into the best gold brokers.