STAT+: As the obesity drug market grows, digital health companies juggle patients and payers
Payers are reeling as they try to figure out how to sustainably cover new obesity and type 2 diabetes drugs. Digital health companies are pitching themselves as a solution.
To much of the public, the promise of telehealth is all about convenience — get the prescription you need quickly, and get it delivered right to your door. But as digital health companies build out their weight loss businesses, capitalizing on the popularity of drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, they’re courting a very different audience: payers and employers who have a vested interest in preventing quick scripts.
Payers are reeling as they try to figure out how to sustainably cover GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of remarkably effective but expensive obesity and type 2 diabetes drugs. So in the last six months, digital health companies including Teladoc, Found, Hello Alpha, and Calibrate have advanced enterprise products that pair virtual visits and prescriptions with lifestyle coaching. Their hope is that more and more payers and employers will offer their programs as a way to support lasting weight loss and metabolic health — or even require them if patients want their drugs reimbursed.
The competition is growing quickly. Telehealth companies once focused exclusively on consumers are now marketing to payers. Enterprise programs for chronic care management are promoting new services to support patients on obesity drugs. And companies like Noom and WeightWatchers, which have built gargantuan weight loss businesses for consumers and businesses alike, are starting to prescribe the drugs.
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