---
type: musing
domain: health
session: 23
date: 2026-04-13
status: active
---

# Research Session 23 — USPSTF GLP-1 Gap + Behavioral Adherence: Breaking the Continuous-Delivery Assumption?

## Research Question

What is the current USPSTF status on GLP-1 pharmacotherapy recommendations, and are behavioral adherence programs closing the gap that coverage alone can't fill — particularly for the 85.7% of commercially insured GLP-1 users who don't achieve durable metabolic benefit?

**Why this question now:**
Session 22 identified two active threads:
1. The USPSTF GLP-1 pathway — potentially the most significant future offset to the access collapse (a new B recommendation would mandate ACA coverage without cost-sharing)
2. The adherence complication: 14.3% two-year persistence even with commercial coverage means the problem isn't only financial access. Direction A was "what behavioral support programs improve adherence?"

Session 22 also flagged "continuous-treatment model claim: READY TO EXTRACT" — but this session found evidence that complicates that extraction. The Omada post-discontinuation data is the most significant finding.

**Note:** Tweet file was empty this session — no curated sources. All research is from original web searches.

## Belief Targeted for Disconfirmation

**Primary target — Belief 1: Healthspan is civilization's binding constraint, and we are systematically failing at it in ways that compound.**

**Specific falsification criterion:**
If behavioral wraparound programs are demonstrably closing the adherence gap (85.7% non-adherent despite coverage), then the "continuous delivery required" thesis may overstate the pharmacological dependency. The Omada post-discontinuation claim — if real — would mean behavioral infrastructure CAN break GLP-1 dependency, converting a continuous-delivery requirement into a skill-buildable state. This would: (1) weaken the compounding failure thesis (one layer is addressable without the medication being continuous); (2) change the policy prescription (fund behavioral wraparound, not just medication access).

**USPSTF disconfirmation criterion:**
If USPSTF has a pending draft recommendation that would extend the B rating to GLP-1 pharmacotherapy, that would be an operational policy offset in development — challenging the "no offset mechanism" conclusion from Session 22.

**What I expected to find:** Programs show associative improvements but with survivorship bias; no prospective RCTs of behavioral wraparound; USPSTF has no pending GLP-1 update.

## What I Searched For

- USPSTF weight loss interventions draft recommendation 2026 pharmacotherapy GLP-1
- USPSTF formal petition for GLP-1 pharmacotherapy inclusion
- GLP-1 behavioral adherence support programs 2025-2026 (Noom, Calibrate, Omada, WW Med+, Ro Body)
- GLP-1 access equity by state/income (the "access inversion" framing)
- Racial/ethnic disparities in GLP-1 prescribing
- Medical school prospective pre-AI clinical competency baselines (never-skilling detection)
- New clinical AI deskilling evidence 2025-2026 beyond the colonoscopy ADR study

## Key Findings

### 1. DISCONFIRMATION TEST RESULT — USPSTF: No Offset in Development

**The disconfirmation question:** Is USPSTF developing a GLP-1 pharmacotherapy recommendation that would mandate ACA coverage?

**Answer: No — the 2018 B recommendation remains operative, with no petition or draft update for GLP-1 pharmacotherapy visible.**

Key facts:
- USPSTF 2018 B recommendation: intensive multicomponent behavioral interventions for BMI ≥30. Pharmacotherapy was reviewed but NOT recommended (lacked maintenance data). Medications reviewed: orlistat, liraglutide, phentermine-topiramate, naltrexone-bupropion, lorcaserin — Wegovy/semaglutide 2.4mg and tirzepatide are ABSENT.
- USPSTF website flags adult obesity topic as "being updated" but redirect points toward cardiovascular prevention, not GLP-1 pharmacotherapy.
- No formal USPSTF petition for GLP-1 pharmacotherapy found in any search.
- No draft recommendation statement visible as of April 2026.
- Policy implication: A new A/B rating covering pharmacotherapy would trigger ACA Section 2713 mandatory coverage without cost-sharing for all non-grandfathered plans. This is the most significant potential policy mechanism — and it doesn't exist yet.

**Conclusion:** The USPSTF gap is growing in urgency as therapeutic-dose GLP-1s become standard of care. The 2018 recommendation is 8 years behind the science. No petition or update is in motion. This is an extractable claim: the policy mechanism that would most effectively address GLP-1 access doesn't exist and isn't being created.

### 2. MOST SURPRISING FINDING — Omada Post-Discontinuation Data Challenges the Continuous-Delivery Thesis

**This is the session's most significant finding for belief revision.**

Session 22 was about to flag "continuous-treatment model claim: READY TO EXTRACT" — stating that pharmacological/dietary interventions require continuous delivery for sustained effect (GLP-1 rebound, food-as-medicine reversion, antidepressant relapse pattern all confirmed this).

Omada Health's Enhanced GLP-1 Care Track data challenges this:
- 63% of Omada members MAINTAINED OR CONTINUED LOSING WEIGHT 12 months after stopping GLP-1s
- Average weight change post-discontinuation: 0.8% (near-zero)
- This is the strongest post-discontinuation data of any program found

**Methodological caveats that limit this finding:**
- Survivorship bias: sample includes only patients who remained in the Omada program after stopping GLP-1s — not all patients who stop GLP-1s
- Omada-specific: the behavioral wraparound (high-touch care team, nutrition guidance, exercise specialist, muscle preservation) is more intensive than standard care
- Internal analysis (not peer-reviewed RCT)

**What this means if it holds:**
The "continuous delivery required" thesis may be over-general. The more precise claim is: GLP-1s without behavioral infrastructure require continuous delivery; GLP-1s WITH comprehensive behavioral wraparound may produce durable changes in some patients even after cessation. This is a scope qualification, not a disconfirmation — but it's important.

**Hold the "continuous-treatment model claim" extraction.** The Omada finding needs to be archived and weighed alongside the GLP-1 rebound data. The extraction should include both the rebound evidence (the rule) and the Omada data (the potential exception with behavioral wraparound). This changes the claim title from absolute to conditional.

### 3. Behavioral Adherence Programs Show Consistent Signal (With Caveats)

**All programs report better persistence and weight loss with behavioral engagement:**

Noom (January 2026 internal analysis, n=30,239):
- Top engagement quartile: 2.2x longer persistence vs. bottom quartile (6.2 months vs. 2.8 months)
- 25.2% more weight loss at week 40
- Day-30 retention: 40% (claimed 10x industry average)
- Reverse causality caveat: people doing well may engage more — not proven that engagement causes persistence

Calibrate (n=17,475):
- 15.7% average weight loss at 12 months; 17.9% at 24 months (sustained, not plateau)
- Interrupted access: 13.7% at 12 months vs 17% uninterrupted — behavioral program provides a floor
- 80% track weight weekly; 67% complete coaching sessions

WeightWatchers Med+ (March 2026, n=3,260):
- 61.3% more weight loss in month 1 vs. medication alone
- 21.0% average weight loss at 12 months; 20.5% at 24 months
- 72% reported program helped minimize side effects

Omada (n=1,124):
- 94% persistence at 12 weeks (vs. 42-80% industry range)
- 84% persistence at 24 weeks (vs. 33-74% industry range)
- 18.4% weight loss at 12 months (vs. 11.9% real-world comparators)
- Post-discontinuation: 63% maintained/continued weight loss; 0.8% average change

**Cross-cutting caveat:** Every program's data is company-sponsored, observational, with survivorship bias. No independent RCT of behavioral wraparound vs. medication-only with long-term primary endpoints. The signal is consistent but not proven causal.

**Industry-level improvement:** One-year persistence for Wegovy/Zepbound improved from 40% (2023) to 63% (early 2024) — nearly doubling. This could reflect: (1) increasing availability of behavioral programs; (2) improved patient selection; (3) dose titration improvements reducing GI side effects.

### 4. GLP-1 Access Inversion — Now Empirically Documented

The access inversion framing is confirmed with new data:

Geographic/income pattern:
- Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana (obesity rates 40%+) → low income states, minimal Medicaid GLP-1 coverage, 12-13% of median annual income to pay out-of-pocket for GLP-1
- Massachusetts, Connecticut → high income states, 8% of median income for out-of-pocket

Racial disparities — Wasden 2026 (*Obesity* journal, large tertiary care center):
- Before MassHealth Medicaid coverage change (January 2024): Black patients 49% less likely, Hispanic patients 47% less likely to be prescribed semaglutide/tirzepatide vs. White patients
- After coverage change: disparities narrowed substantially
- Conclusion: insurance policy is primary driver, not just provider bias
- Separate tirzepatide dataset: adjusted ORs vs. White — AIAN: 0.6, Asian: 0.3, Black: 0.7, Hispanic: 0.4, NHPI: 0.4

Wealth-based treatment timing:
- Black patients with net worth >$1M: median BMI 35.0 at GLP-1 initiation
- Black patients with net worth <$10K: median BMI 39.4 — treatment starts 13% later in disease progression
- Lower-income patients are sicker when they finally get access

**This is extractable.** The access inversion claim has now been confirmed with three independent evidence types: geographic/income data, racial disparity data, and treatment-timing data. This is ready to extract as a claim: "GLP-1 access follows an access inversion pattern — highest-burden populations by disease prevalence are precisely the populations with least access by coverage and income."

### 5. Clinical AI Deskilling — Now Cross-Specialty Evidence Body (2025-2026)

Session 22 had the colonoscopy ADR drop (28% → 22%) as the anchor quantitative finding. This session found 4 additional quantitative findings:

New evidence:
- Mammography/breast imaging: erroneous AI prompts increased false-positive recalls by up to 12% among 27 experienced radiologists (automation bias mechanism)
- Computational pathology: 30%+ of participants reversed correct initial diagnoses when exposed to incorrect AI suggestions under time constraints (mis-skilling in real time)
- ACL diagnosis: 45.5% of clinician errors resulted directly from following incorrect AI recommendations
- UK GP medication management: 22.5% of prescriptions changed in response to decision support; 5.2% switched from correct to incorrect prescription after flawed advice (measurable harm rate)

Comprehensive synthesis:
- Natali et al. 2025 (*Artificial Intelligence Review*, Springer): mixed-method review across radiology, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, oncology, cardiology, pathology, fertility medicine, geriatrics, psychiatry, ophthalmology. Cross-specialty pattern confirmed: AI benefits performance while present; produces skill dependency visible when AI is unavailable.
- Frontiers in Medicine 2026: neurological mechanism proposed — reduced prefrontal cortex engagement, hippocampal disengagement from memory formation, dopaminergic reinforcement of AI-reliance. Theoretical but mechanistically grounded.

**Belief 5 status:** Significantly strengthened. The evidence base for AI-induced deskilling has moved from "one study + theoretical concern" to "5 independent quantitative findings across 5 specialties + comprehensive cross-specialty synthesis + proposed neurological mechanism." This is no longer a hypothesis.

### 6. Never-Skilling — Formally Named, Not Yet Empirically Proven

The "never-skilling" concept has moved from informal framing to peer-reviewed literature:
- NEJM (2025-2026): explicitly discusses never-skilling as distinct from deskilling
- JEO (March 2026): "Never-skilling poses a greater long-term threat to medical education than deskilling"
- NYU's Burk-Rafel: institutional voice using the term explicitly
- Lancet Digital Health (2025): addresses productive struggle removal

What still doesn't exist: any prospective study comparing AI-naive vs. AI-exposed-from-training cohorts on downstream clinical performance. No medical school has a pre-AI baseline competency assessment designed to detect never-skilling. The gap is confirmed — absence is the finding.

## Follow-up Directions

### Active Threads (continue next session)

- **"Continuous-treatment model" claim: HOLD FOR REVISION.** Omada post-discontinuation data must be weighed. Extract the claim with explicit scope: "WITHOUT behavioral infrastructure, pharmacological/dietary interventions require continuous delivery. WITH comprehensive behavioral wraparound, some patients maintain durable effect post-discontinuation." Needs: (1) wait for Omada data to appear in peer-reviewed form; or (2) extract with explicit caveat that Omada data is internal/observational and creates a divergence. Check for Omada peer-reviewed publication of post-discontinuation data.

- **GLP-1 access inversion claim: READY TO EXTRACT.** Three independent evidence types now converge. Draft: "GLP-1 access follows systematic inversion — the populations with highest obesity prevalence and disease burden have lowest access by coverage, income, and treatment-initiation timing." Primary evidence: KFF state coverage data, Wasden 2026 racial disparity study, geographic income analysis.

- **USPSTF gap claim: READY TO EXTRACT.** "USPSTF's 2018 obesity B recommendation predates therapeutic-dose GLP-1s and has not been updated or petitioned, leaving the most powerful ACA coverage mandate mechanism dormant for the drug class most likely to change obesity outcomes." This is a specific, falsifiable claim — USPSTF is the institutional gap that no other mechanism compensates for.

- **Clinical AI deskilling — divergence file update.** The body of evidence has grown from 1 to 5+ quantitative findings across 5 specialties. Session 22 archives covered colonoscopy ADR. This session's Natali et al. review is the synthesis. Consider: should the existing claim file be enriched with new evidence, or is this now ready for a divergence file between "AI deskilling is documented across specialties" and "AI up-skilling (performance improvements while AI is present)"? The Natali review makes this a genuine divergence — AI improves performance while present AND reduces performance when absent.

- **Omada post-discontinuation: peer-reviewed publication search.** Internal company analysis is insufficient for extraction. Search for: "Omada Health GLP-1 post-discontinuation peer reviewed 2025 2026" and "behavioral support GLP-1 cessation weight maintenance RCT." If no peer-reviewed version exists, archive the finding with confidence: speculative and note what would resolve it.

### Dead Ends (don't re-run these)

- **USPSTF GLP-1 pharmacotherapy petition:** No petition, no draft, no formal nomination process visible. Don't re-search until a specific trigger event (USPSTF announcement, advocacy organization petition filed). Note: USPSTF's adult obesity topic is flagged as "under revision" but redirect is cardiovascular prevention, not pharmacotherapy.

- **Omada peer-reviewed post-discontinuation study:** Not yet published in peer-reviewed form (confirmed via search). Don't search again until Q4 2026 — that's the likely publication window if the data was presented at ObesityWeek 2025.

- **Company-sponsored behavioral adherence RCTs:** None of the major commercial programs (Noom, Calibrate, WW Med+, Ro, Omada) have published independent RCT-level evidence for behavioral wraparound improving long-term persistence as of April 2026. The gap is real and confirmed. Don't search for this again — it doesn't exist yet.

### Branching Points (one finding opened multiple directions)

- **Omada post-discontinuation finding:** Direction A — immediately refine and conditionally extract the continuous-treatment model claim with explicit scope qualification; Direction B — treat Omada data as a divergence candidate (behavioral wraparound may enable durable effect post-cessation vs. general GLP-1 rebound pattern). Direction A is more conservative and appropriate given the methodological caveats. Pursue Direction A next session after archiving the Omada finding for extractor review.

- **Racial disparities in GLP-1 access:** Direction A — extract the Wasden 2026 finding as a standalone claim (racial disparities in GLP-1 prescribing narrow significantly with Medicaid coverage expansion → insurance policy, not provider bias, is primary driver); Direction B — combine with access inversion framing into a single compound claim. Direction A preserves specificity — the Wasden finding is clean enough to stand alone.

- **Clinical AI deskilling body of evidence:** Direction A — enrich existing deskilling claim file with the 5 new quantitative findings and the Natali 2025 synthesis; Direction B — create a divergence file between "AI deskilling" and "AI up-skilling while present." Direction B captures the more interesting structural tension — AI simultaneously improves performance (while present) and damages performance (when absent). This is not a contradiction; it's the dependency mechanism. But it looks like a divergence from the outside.
