---
type: source
title: "PHTI Employer Approaches to GLP-1 Coverage — Market Trend Report December 2025"
author: "Peterson Health Technology Institute"
url: https://phti.org/employer-approaches-to-glp1-coverage/
date: 2025-12-15
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: report
status: unprocessed
priority: high
tags: [GLP-1, employer-benefits, payer-mandates, behavioral-support, value-based-care, adherence]
intake_tier: research-task
---

## Content

PHTI (Peterson Health Technology Institute) published this market trend report in December 2025 as an employer purchasing guide for GLP-1 coverage and virtual solutions.

Key statistics from the report and corroborating sources:

**Employer coverage rates:**
- 43% of firms with 5,000+ workers now cover GLP-1s for weight loss (up from 28% in 2024)
- Nearly half of all respondents (48%) covered GLP-1s for weight loss
- 89% of covering employers plan to continue coverage over the next 1-2 years
- 59% report utilization exceeding expectations; 66% report significant spending impact
- 77% of large employers say managing GLP-1 costs is "extremely or very important" for 2026

**Behavioral support mandates — the headline finding:**
- 34% of firms covering GLP-1s now require dietitian, case management, therapy, or lifestyle participation as a coverage condition (up from 10% the prior year — a 3.4x jump in one year)
- 38% of employers require lifestyle behavior program participation as a condition of coverage (figure varies by survey)
- 79% of large employers have expanded utilization management despite flat obesity-indication coverage

**Payer programs implementing behavioral support:**
- **Evernorth EncircleRx**: Manages 9 million enrolled lives with a 15% cost cap or 3:1 savings guarantee; has saved plans approximately $200 million since 2024; added $200 copay cap on Wegovy and Zepbound in 2025
- **Optum Rx Weight Engage**: Pairs GLP-1 access with obesity specialist navigation, coaching, and lifestyle programs
- **UHC Total Weight Support**: Requires coaching engagement (Real Appeal Rx or WeightWatchers) as a coverage prerequisite

**Adherence data (corroborated from additional sources):**
- Meta-regression: ~50% discontinuation within one year; ~60% weight regain within 12 months of cessation
- Prime Therapeutics data (cited by Mercer): Only 1-in-12 patients remain on therapy after three years

**CMS/Medicare:**
- Weight-loss coverage begins in May 2026 for Medicaid and January 2027 for Medicare Part D
- CMS "bridge program" enabling GLP-1 access for Medicare Part D by July 2026
- CMS model supplements coverage with "lifestyle support programs" at no cost

**Manufacturer direct-to-employer channels (as of early 2026):**
- **Eli Lilly Employer Connect (March 5, 2026)**: Direct employer channel at $449/dose Zepbound; partnerships with 15+ program administrators including GoodRx, Teladoc, Calibrate, Form Health, Waltz
- **Novo Nordisk**: Parallel DTE play with Waltz Health and 9amHealth (launched January 1, 2026)

**The structural shift:**
Traditional yes/no formulary decisions cannot accommodate GLP-1 economics (36.2M eligible commercially insured adults × $1,000-1,200/month). Payers and employers are building "managed-access operating systems" covering: which populations qualify, through which channels, with what behavioral gates, at what subsidy levels, and with what discontinuation rules.

Infrastructure opportunities identified:
- Utilization management infrastructure
- Outcomes-based contracting frameworks
- Indication-specific cardiometabolic programs (cardiovascular disease, OSA, MASH, perimenopause, prediabetes)
- Adherence, tapering, and discontinuation management systems
- Employer-side financing or subsidy products

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The 34% → behavioral mandate rate (up from 10%) in one year is structural acceleration of a key claim from the Session 29 branching point. This confirms that behavioral support is becoming payer-mandated infrastructure, not consumer-optional. The payer response (Evernorth, Optum Rx, UHC all building behavioral support as prerequisite) validates that the market is moving exactly as Belief 4 predicts — the software coaching layer creates margin only when bundled with the physical drug delivery.

**What surprised me:** The "managed-access operating system" framing. The payer response to GLP-1s is not just formulary addition — it's building infrastructure that functions like an operating system for drug access. This is bigger than I expected. The infrastructure layer (utilization management, adherence systems, indication-specific programs) is a distinct opportunity from the behavioral coaching layer.

**What I expected but didn't find:** A clear winner among the payer-behavioral support vendor partnerships. UHC requires Real Appeal Rx or WeightWatchers — but WeightWatchers just filed bankruptcy. This creates a fascinating gap: the mandated vendor is no longer viable in its pre-bankruptcy form.

**KB connections:**
- [[GLP-1 receptor agonists are the largest therapeutic category launch in pharmaceutical history but their chronic use model makes the net cost impact inflationary through 2035]] — challenged by adherence data; the managed-access OS framing adds complexity: the infrastructure investment may actually enable higher persistence, partially recovering the inflationary trajectory
- [[value-based care transitions stall at the payment boundary because 60 percent of payments touch value metrics but only 14 percent bear full risk]] — payer behavioral support mandates are a NEW mechanism for value-based care at the formulary level
- [[the healthcare attractor state is a prevention-first system where aligned payment continuous monitoring and AI-augmented care delivery create a flywheel that profits from health rather than sickness]]

**Extraction hints:**
- CLAIM: "GLP-1 payer behavioral mandates tripled in one year (10% → 34%) signaling structural shift from drug-only formulary to managed-access operating systems" — confidence: likely
- CLAIM: "The GLP-1 managed-access infrastructure layer (utilization management, adherence systems, indication-specific programs) creates a distinct platform opportunity separate from behavioral coaching" — confidence: experimental
- UPDATE: Challenged_by annotation for "chronic use model inflationary through 2035" claim — real-world persistence is 1-in-12 at 3 years; managed-access infrastructure partially compensates

**Context:** PHTI is a credible, nonprofit health technology evaluator. December 2025 publication makes this current. The onhealthcare.tech piece (same URL batch) provides complementary analysis from a market strategy lens.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[value-based care transitions stall at the payment boundary because 60 percent of payments touch value metrics but only 14 percent bear full risk]]
WHY ARCHIVED: First direct evidence that behavioral mandates have become structural (not optional) in employer GLP-1 coverage — the 34% mandate rate (up from 10%) is the inflection signal
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the mandate rate acceleration and the managed-access operating system framing — these are the novel claims; the adherence statistics are confirmatory of existing KB claims
