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Employers face soaring demand for obesity care benefits.


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2023 May 30, 6:17am   668 views  16 comments

by Al_Sharpton_for_President   ➕follow (5)   💰tip   ignore  

Employers are seeing surging demand from their workers for benefits that cover obesity treatment and this is opening up considerable market opportunities for virtual care players.

A recent survey found that 44% of people with obesity would change jobs to gain coverage for treatment. And more than half of workers would stay at a job they didn't like to retain that coverage, according to the survey from the Obesity Action Coalition.

"I think very much that where we were on mental health as an employee benefit 10 years ago is where we are today on metabolic health. In 10 years, employees will move with their feet to employers who cover holistic metabolic health benefits," said Isabelle Kenyon, founder and CEO of Calibrate, a digital metabolic health platform.

Increasingly, as part of this focus on metabolic health, there is excitement around new and emerging obesity medications like semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro). But drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy come with a hefty price tag, at least $1,000 per month. Neither drug is covered for weight loss by most insurance plans.

Semaglutide, which is sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, accounted for $10.7 billion in drug spending in 2021, up 90% over the year before, which ranked it fourth among drug expenditures, according to a study published last year in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.

Last year, the American Gastroenterology Association recommended coverage of weight loss drugs for those with BMI (body mass index) over 30 or BMI over 27 with complications. Currently, about 42% of people in the U.S. are obese, or have a BMI of 30 or higher, according to CDC data.

Health plan sponsors are facing increasing pressure to cover these medications. If these drugs are used by a substantial portion of those with obesity, the increase in medical costs will be high, according to Jeff Levin-Scherz, M.D., managing director and population health leader at insurance services company Willis Towers Watson (WTW).

And these advances in game-changing obesity drugs come as employers are already facing the highest medical inflation rate in decades.

"Among our clients, about two-thirds of them are covering GLP-1 drugs for obesity, however, what we’re seeing is rapid uptake and costs that are unsustainable," Levin-Scherz said. "Coverage right now is pretty good, but if these drugs continue to be as expensive as they are now, I don’t know if we could project that they will continue to be covered this way."

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/digital-health/employers-grapple-soaring-demand-obesity-care-benefits


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1   stfu   2023 May 30, 7:35am  

All this proves is that advertising works and that people would rather take a pill than change their diet. This "surging demand" probably directly correlates to the new drugs that have 'weight loss' as a possible side effect that have just started to be promoted/ advertised. The weight loss is probably statistically insignificant but big pharm is making sure that it is getting mentioned and highlighted.
2   WookieMan   2023 May 30, 7:44am  

There's no reason to be fat. A large chunk of the population owns a dog. Take it for a walk. Move. You don't have to go to CrossFit and flip tires or whatever they do. Be on your feet 4-6 hours a day and it's pretty tough to be fat. Walk or ride a bike to businesses like grocery stores or restaurants if you go out to eat or need something. I can do that in my cornfield town. We have 7-8 places for anyone in town you could walk to. Get a cart. Even easier in urban areas.

We'll bike the 7-10 minutes to our volleyball pub if it's warm enough. Little things add up. We've got baskets on our bikes and can grab a bag or two of groceries.

Portions are another biggie. I'm 220lbs currently, pissed about it, but portions are too huge if you eat out. 2-3 days ago we ordered a garlic bread app and it was the size of a fucking 18" pizza!

Split with the spouse/friend. Burgers and the like are massive. You only need half. Also don't feel like you "have" to eat the food. I'm sarcastic, but if the server asks you if you liked it, but say yes if you did, but your portions are massive. Not insulting. Need more people giving feedback that the portions are too big. No one should EVER ask for a box unless they weren't feeling well. It would increase margins for restaurants that are already thin anyway. Smaller portions of food.
3   HeadSet   2023 May 30, 8:14am  

WookieMan says

We'll bike the 7-10 minutes to our volleyball pub if it's warm enough.

Isn't that the solution to that issue you wrote about in a previous post about the risk of driving home when you have had a few beers at the volleyball club?
4   NDrLoR   2023 May 30, 8:56am  

After I retired from the gas company in 1997, I had a succession of temp jobs, the last one at a place in Carrollton, TX called Intracorp that was part of one of the large medical systems, but I've forgotten which one. I went in March, 2003, but was hired full time in June of that year. My job was to access templates in their system and fill out the blank spaces with names, dob and so on. The most important part was what was called the Rationale--at first a seven or eight line explanation within a boxed space of why remittance was either denied or granted. Within six months these explanations grew to such an extent that additional pages had to be used. By far the most frequent request was for gastric bypass (I can't remember the medical term that applied), a $40K procedure then. Intracorp had the policies for CONY, the employees of the City of New York. You would not believe how many people requested this procedure, nor the reasons for the denials. It was denied to one woman they explained because it was the third time she would have had it and it was a medically risky procedure for someone who clearly had no control over their eating habits. One employee not only requested it for himself but four other members of the same family--all were denied. The rationales got so long they took 30 minutes or more to type and had to be perfect upon what they called Q&A which was proof-reading by another employee. It ruined the job for me and I decided to just quit as I was going to sell my place and move back to Waco. When I told my super she told me in the utmost confidence not to do so but to wait a couple of weeks as I was going to be fired due to downsizing and that would make me eligible for a small amount of severance--she'd hate to see me lose that benefit even if I'd worked there for only two years. It was fine with me and I can remember the date June 9, 2005, when they called me into the conference room--we put on a good act. I finished up my last letter and left at noon. When I got home, there was a call on my answering machine from the Realtor making an offer on my condo. I had him come over and signed the stack of papers. Headed back to Waco on 7/7/05 after 38 years in Dallas.
6   RWSGFY   2023 May 30, 10:35am  

HeadSet says

WookieMan says


We'll bike the 7-10 minutes to our volleyball pub if it's warm enough.

Isn't that the solution to that issue you wrote about in a previous post about the risk of driving home when you have had a few beers at the volleyball club?


It is, but only for about 1.5 months out of the year.

(Californians: "neener-neener!")
7   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2023 May 31, 9:43am  

Global obesity drugs sales could top $44bn in 2030, says Bloomberg Intelligence.

Sales of branded anti-obesity drugs (AOB) could hit $44 billion in 2030 vs. $2.5 billion in 2022, with just under 70% stemming from the US, according to a report from Bloomberg Intelligence.

https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/ARTICLE/2023/05/31/GLOBAL-OBESITY-DRUGS-SALES-COULD-TOP-44BN-IN-2030-SAYS-BLOOMBERG-INTELLIGENCE
8   zzyzzx   2023 May 31, 10:03am  

NDrLoR says

. By far the most frequent request was for gastric bypass (I can't remember the medical term that applied), a $40K procedure then. Intracorp had the policies for CONY, the employees of the City of New York. You would not believe how many people requested this procedure,


I'm curious as to if your data included the race of the applicant, because I'd like to see the breakdown of requests by race.
9   zzyzzx   2023 Jun 2, 6:59am  

Obligatory (and ripped off from another thread):


10   Tenpoundbass   2023 Jun 2, 7:20am  

In the meantime there hasn't been one single drug that the FDA has approved over the last 20 years, that they wouldn't have to kill me first before I would let them force jabbed me with it, or shoved a poison pill down my throat. But y'all go on ahead keep distracted by bitching about the fat fucks.

It amazes me how the Marxism playbook on the Fat fucks skips right over the smartest of the smarties on Patnet.

Someone's fat ass is none of your business, unless you want to shove a dick in it. While you're watching and cringing at Lizzy the Commies are running a bigger rough shod over your manipulated heads.
11   Tenpoundbass   2023 Jun 2, 7:25am  

How come nobody has the same concerns or care over how the cost of all of the willing Vax recipients will be transferred to them?
This is going to be a pandemic 1000 times greater than any Heart Disease or Diabetus the fat people are adding on to your bill.

I would rather hate on those dumb fucks that got the jab in spite of the Trump supporters best advice not to. They did it anyway, and now you can't get a hospital room if your life depended on it, all of the jabbed are dying or so sick our health systems are strained.
12   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2023 Jun 2, 12:09pm  

Tenpoundbass says


Someone's fat ass is none of your business

It is when it is taking up my seat on a plane. In general, people with poor impulse control cost society, whether it is food, sex, drugs or violence. In the case of fatties, it is a self-inflicted problem with a known solution, so a fatty who will not stop stuffing massive quantities down his/her gullet is either ignorant, unintelligent, lazy, or has unhealthy cultural views on physical attractiveness, as do African Americans, or any combination of these.
13   Blue   2023 Jun 2, 1:43pm  

zzyzzx says


https://www.zerohedge.com/political/under-pressure-fat-activists-nyc-bans-weight-discrimination

Under Pressure From Fat Activists, NYC Bans Weight Discrimination

>Under Pressure From Fat Activists
Or Under Pressure From Food and Pharmaceutical industries to make fat and sick nearly dead!
14   Tenpoundbass   2023 Jun 2, 3:17pm  

Al_Sharpton_for_President says

It is when it is taking up my seat on a plane.


I would rather fattie sit on my lap than sit next to a Tranny or even worse in between two.
Let's see you do Tranny Shaming now and get away with it? It's the people you are NOT allowed to criticize that is our problem.
15   richwicks   2023 Jun 2, 6:53pm  

Tenpoundbass says

Someone's fat ass is none of your business, unless you want to shove a dick in it. While you're watching and cringing at Lizzy the Commies are running a bigger rough shod over your manipulated heads.


I don't particularly care about Lizzo, but eventually she's doing to die. I expect her to be dead before 50.

Nobody in the "music industry" makes it because of talent today, nobody. They are promoted simply because they fit an agenda being pushed. In this case, it's normalizing being grotesquely obese. If she was a thin, but homely woman, she'd be a nobody.

I think the last musicians who actually did well because they were good musicians were from the 1960's and 70's. Then corporate took over, and it went from Pink Floyd and the Beatles to KC and the Sunshine band and The Monkeys.

There was a lot of great anti-war music from the 1970's, have you heard any of it on the radio in the last 20 years while we've been in war?
16   HeadSet   2023 Jun 2, 8:40pm  

Blue says

Under Pressure From Fat Activists

What did these fatties do, sit on them?

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