GLP-1 Cost Management for Employers

GLP-1 medications, originally developed for diabetes management and now widely prescribed for weight management, have become the single hottest cost issue for employer benefits leaders and their brokers heading into 2026. Per KFF's 2025 survey, 43% of firms with 5,000 or more workers now cover GLP-1s for weight loss, up from just 28% the year prior. Of those firms, 66% report the coverage had a "significant" impact on overall prescription drug spending.

Employer responses to date have concentrated on utilization management: about a third (34%) of large firms offering GLP-1s for weight loss now require enrollees to meet with a dietitian, therapist, or other professional, or to participate in a lifestyle program, as a condition of coverage.

That utilization-management trend points to an upstream gap the OnMed CareStation^® is built to close. 80% of CareStation users have no primary care provider, and 44% present with a chronic condition—often the first time it's been formally identified. Many of the metabolic conditions now driving GLP-1 prescriptions—obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension—are exactly the kind of chronic conditions that go undiagnosed for years without consistent access to care. Earlier detection through on-site chronic-care management doesn't replace utilization management; it's what makes utilization management something employers can act on before a condition has already progressed to needing the highest-cost specialty drug pathway.