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Heath Holt Talks Weight-Loss Drugs with The Tennessean
Heath Holt Talks Weight-Loss Drugs with The Tennessean
Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are sweeping the nation by storm, putting pressure on employers to add them to their healthcare plans.
In the last three years, the popularity of these weight-loss injections has shot up across Tennessee and the entire country, after the Food and Drug Administration approved semaglutide Wegovy for weight management in 2021 and opened the door for the GLP-1 craze. However, supply chain issues, accessibility through insurance and rising reports of overdoses shine a light on a growing problem with the "miracle" drug.
OneDigital Tennessee Principal Heath Holt was recently interviewed by The Tennessean to discuss the popularity of the drugs, and what it means for employers and their healthcare spend.
When you do add one of these GLP-1s to your healthcare plan for the purposes of weight loss, you can anticipate about a 7% increase to your overall claims, which can be quite substantial.
— Heath Holt, Principal, OneDigital Tennessee
Heath says that in the last two to three years, the demand for employers to offer weight-loss drugs as a health benefit has increased “exponentially” in the state of Tennessee, with the adoption rate of incorporating weight-loss drugs into health benefits plans at around 25% in Tennessee, but closer to 50% nationwide. And while it's becoming more and more common, he says it's imperative for employers to weigh out their options when considering the drug.
There’s a fine balance there. What we're having to do is weigh out the long-term cost of particular medical conditions compared to the cost of the drugs themselves. It's really become a grassroots campaign from the employees pressing their employers to offer that as part of their plan. It's absolutely a big deal, and it comes up in every discussion with employers that we work with.
To read the full interview, click here.