Between 2024 and 2025, the percentage of U.S. adults taking GLP-1s for weight loss more than doubled, according to Gallup, rising from 5.8% to 12.4%. With this accelerating demand being a major driver of surging employer healthcare cost. It’s no wonder that coverage of GLP-1s remains the topic du jour among HR and benefits executives when designing a workplace weight management benefits strategy.
But the discussion can’t end there. Beyond determining whether and how to cover GLP-1s, a successful strategy will also need to integrate weight management into a comprehensive employee health benefits program and, most importantly, how to support the behavior changes that are essential for longer-term weight management.
“When the FDA approved GLP-1s for weight loss, they did so with the understanding that these therapies would be used in conjunction with lifestyle modification and behavior change,” says Gabrielle Boisvert, Head of Solution Strategy at Teladoc Health.
GLP-1s: To cover or not to cover?
With an average monthly price tag of about $1,000 per patient, GLP-1s top the list of drugs that most concern employers when assessing their pharmacy benefit spend. In a recent Mercer survey of employers, 77% of respondents said managing this cost was either extremely or very important.
GLP-1s are certainly dominating the conversations Betsy Nota-Kirby, Senior Vice President, National Health Management Consulting at Marsh McLennan Agency, is having with her clients. She encourages those seeking guidance on deciding whether to pay for the drugs in their employee benefit weight loss programs to first complete the following two steps:
- Analyze your total employee population to gauge the potential use of GLP-1s in all applications, whether for weight loss, diabetes care or other emerging uses.
- Use financial modeling to estimate the cost of covering the drugs at various levels of usage.
Boisvert notes that many employers who determine that footing the entire bill for GLP-1s is untenable are looking at cost-sharing alternatives. For example, an employer might provide a lifestyle modification program at no cost, while the employee buys medication at a discount made possible by redirecting their prescriptions to the drug manufacturers. Another option is for employers to contribute a portion of the cost of the drug.
In a recent Teladoc Health consumer survey, two out of three people who could be eligible for a GLP-1 said they would be willing to share or cover the cost at a discount as part of a virtual care program.
Integrated obesity care
Just as there is more to an effective weight loss program than GLP-1 coverage, the benefits of supporting employees’ weight loss care extend far beyond shedding pounds. Research evidence shows links between obesity and cardiometabolic conditions, cancer, sleep apnea, back and joint pain, and mental health. This is why it’s important to integrate a weight loss program into a comprehensive health and wellness benefit strategy that includes regular health screenings, preventive care, chronic disease management and mental health support.
“Core programs should address all dimensions of well-being—physical, mental, social and financial—because they’re all intertwined in how people behave, how they move, how they eat, how they think and the way they live their lives,” Nota-Kirby says.
Access to qualified obesity care providers is another key element, one that highlights the advantages of incorporating virtual care into the program. All the providers in the Teladoc Health weight management program receive additional training in obesity care and offer personalized care plans.
Support for behavior change
No workplace weight management benefits strategy can be effective without addressing behavior change aimed at maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of whether GLP-1s are included in the benefits plan, helping participants adopt better nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress management habits is essential to keeping a healthy weight over the long haul. And Nota-Kirby believes one of the most critical components of that support system is mental health.
“People that are experiencing weight struggles throughout their lives have a lot of emotional issues with food and a lot of self-image and body image concerns that they are dealing with,” Nota-Kirby says.
She advises employers to make access to mental health support available in a variety of ways that appeal to the multiple generations and learning styles in their workforce: phone conversations, video sessions, text and in-app messaging, one-on-one coaching, group therapy sessions. Additionally, she notes that virtual healthcare offerings such as Teladoc Health have made it much easier than in the past for employees to get the informational and emotional support they need when they need it.
Boisvert offers several tips for HR and benefits leaders seeking a behavior change support structure for obesity care grounded in how Teladoc Health is delivering and orchestrating care and their program’s success.
- Set meaningful, personalized goals: Work alongside each program participant to identify individualized weight‑loss, health, and lifestyle goals.
- Reinforce progress as momentum for sustained improvement: Celebrate milestones early and often. Evidence from behavioral science confirms positive reinforcement, and at Teladoc Health this is a catalyst for better health outcomes.
- Provide personal, human-centered coaching: Offer one-on-one coaching with the ability for individuals to view coach profiles and select the best fit for them.
- Give participants access to registered dietitians: Make available dietitians trained to create personalized, healthy nutrition plans tailored to cultural preferences, schedules, and budgets.
Taking these steps as part of a comprehensive weight management benefits strategy will help foster better health outcomes that in turn lead to better control of healthcare costs. And it will heed one of Nota-Kirby’s top pieces of advice: “Make sure the program is evidence-based and it is going to support individuals in their weight loss journey.”