Current Market Access to GLP-1s — and What’s Next

  • Apr 10, 2025

    President Donald Trump’s administration on April 4 abandoned a proposal from Joe Biden’s administration that would have expanded Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to obesity drugs, including the popular but costly GLP-1 medications.

    Data from MMIT Analytics shows that fewer than 4% of Medicare enrollees have plans that put  Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) — GLP-1s that were approved for weight loss — under the preferred/preferred (prior authorization and/or step therapy) tier and covered/covered (PA/ST) tiers, as of April 2025 (AIS Health is a division of MMIT.) While Medicare Part D plans are barred by statute from covering weight-loss medications, such plans can cover those when they are approved for other indications, like reducing the risk of stroke or heart attack in patients with obesity.

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    © 2024 MMIT
  • Jinghong Chen

    Jinghong has been producing infographics and data stories on employer-sponsored insurance, public health insurance programs and prescription drug coverage for AIS Health’s Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits since 2018. She also manages AIS Health’s annual executive compensation database for top insurers and Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates. Before joining AIS Health, she interned at WBEZ, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times Chinese. She graduated from Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on data journalism and international reporting.

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