---
type: source
title: "Employer Approaches to GLP-1 Coverage Market Trend Report (PHTI, December 2025)"
author: "Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI)"
url: https://phti.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/12/PHTI-Employer-Approaches-to-GLP-1-Coverage-Market-Trend-Report.pdf
date: 2025-12-01
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: industry-research
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-04-27
priority: medium
tags: [glp-1, employer-coverage, payer, benefits, cost-management, adherence, value-based-care, obesity]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) December 2025 market trend report on employer approaches to GLP-1 coverage.

**Core context:** Employers are the primary coverage decision-makers for GLP-1s for working-age adults (US employer-sponsored insurance covers ~50% of Americans). Their decisions on GLP-1 coverage shape access for the highest-prevalence obesity demographic.

**Market trends documented:**
- GLP-1 coverage without personal support is described as "a recipe for wasted wellness dollars" (Benefits Pro, March 2026 framing)
- Employers adopting "payer who adopt scalable tech-enabled care with measurable outcomes will win in an increasingly high-pressure environment"
- Growing movement toward tiered coverage: GLP-1 drug + behavioral program bundled vs. drug-only coverage
- Cost management strategies: step therapy, prior authorization, lifestyle program requirements as coverage conditions

**Context from PHTI's assessment:**
- PHTI is a nonprofit that evaluates health technology — they assess value of digital health and clinical tools for payers/employers
- Their employer coverage report reflects actual payer decision-making patterns across Fortune 500 companies and mid-market employers
- Key trend: employers moving from "cover the drug" to "cover the drug + support program" to manage cost and outcomes

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the payer mechanism that translates the JMIR digital coaching finding (67% persistence with support vs. 47% without) into actual coverage architecture. Employers are learning that drug-only GLP-1 coverage produces high dropout and cost with low durable outcomes. The market response is bundled drug + behavioral support coverage. This is the mechanism by which digital behavioral health companies become infrastructure — not consumer choice, but payer mandate.

**What surprised me:** PHTI specifically framing GLP-1 coverage WITHOUT personal support as "wasted wellness dollars" — this is a payer/employer validation of the behavioral support layer's necessity. The market is moving toward making support programs a coverage requirement, not an optional add-on. This accelerates Belief 4's thesis: as the payer system moves to bundled coverage, the behavioral software layer becomes table stakes, not differentiation.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Specific employer coverage rates or specific bundled program adoption statistics. The PHTI report appears to be market trend analysis rather than quantitative coverage data.

**KB connections:**
- Connects to JMIR digital coaching archive (67% persistence with support) — the employer market is structurally incentivized to pay for behavioral support because of the adherence/outcome differential
- Connects to Belief 4 (atoms-to-bits): payer mandate for behavioral support = structural moat creation for digital health companies in the GLP-1 adherence space
- Connects to the existing consumer willingness-to-pay KB claim: employers are creating PAYER willingness-to-pay, which may be more durable than consumer out-of-pocket

**Extraction hints:**
- The behavioral support bundle as payer strategy is worth noting for future claim development — "employers are structurally moving toward GLP-1 + behavioral support bundled coverage because drug-only coverage produces inadequate ROI"
- Most useful for enriching the digital coaching adherence claim (JMIR archive) with the payer adoption mechanism

**Context:** PHTI is a credible nonprofit that does independent health technology assessment — they are not funded by industry and have assessed GLP-1s skeptically in the past. Their documentation of employer movement toward bundled coverage is a market signal worth tracking.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: GLP-1 adherence / digital coaching claim development (supports Belief 4 through payer mechanism)
WHY ARCHIVED: Provides the payer adoption angle for behavioral support programs — the market mechanism by which the digital coaching finding (67% persistence) becomes embedded in coverage architecture rather than remaining an elective program.
EXTRACTION HINT: Don't extract standalone. Use to enrich the JMIR adherence claim with the market mechanism: employers are building behavioral support requirements into GLP-1 coverage because adherence ROI justifies it.
