For HR, benefits and total-rewards leaders, and the brokers who advise them
Helping your people lose weight for good, without losing control of your plan.
As you plan next year's benefits, the published numbers tell a simple story: the medication alone isn't the investment. The employee who feels supported enough to stay on it, lose the weight and keep it off is. This brief walks through the pressure you're under, where the money quietly slips away, and what turns a weight-loss benefit into lower medical costs and people who stay. Every figure is sourced on page 2.
1The squeeze you're already feeling
$18,500+Employer health-benefit cost per employee in 2026, up 6.7%, the steepest rise in 15 years, per Mercer, the global benefits consultancy. 1
10.5%Share of employers' pharmacy claims now going to GLP-1s, up from 6.9% in 2023, per the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. 2
840%Rise in allowed cost per member per month for weight-loss GLP-1s, $2.41 to $22.59, 2022 to 2024. 3
$1,087–$1,349Monthly list price of the two leading injectables; roughly $13,000 to $16,000 a year before rebates. 4
+5.3% to 13.8%Projected premium impact of broadly covering GLP-1s for weight loss, modeled by EBRI, the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. 5
72% → 60%Large employers covering GLP-1s for obesity, 2025 to 2026, per Business Group on Health, the association of large employers. Only 72% of those still covering plan to keep it. 6
Lockton, one of the largest privately held insurance brokerages in the country, puts it plainly: at current prices there is no demonstrable return within the pharmacy benefit for covering weight-loss GLP-1s, and plans that cover them saw double the brand-drug trend of plans that don't. 3 A third of covering employers now steer employees to direct-to-consumer platforms or HSA/FSA dollars instead. 2 Meanwhile 29% of employees say they would switch employers to get GLP-1 coverage, according to NFP, the national benefits broker owned by Aon. 7 That is the squeeze: you can't easily afford to cover it, and you can't afford to tell good people no. The rest of this brief is about the third way out.
2Where the money slips away: people start, struggle alone, and stop
A prescription only pays off if the person behind it stays on it long enough to lose the weight and then keep it off. Left alone with side effects, plateaus and paperwork, most don't. 8, 9
Of every 100 employees who start a GLP-1 with no one in their corner 8, 9
30 stop within the first month
35 more stop before the year is out
35 are still on treatment at one year
By year two about 1 in 7 remains; by year three, 1 in 12. 10
Sources: Blue Health Intelligence, the Blue Cross Blue Shield data arm (first month); JAMA Network Open, 125,000 patients (one year); Prime Therapeutics claims (years two and three).
The math your claims report doesn't show. An employee who starts in January and gives up in May cost the plan five months of medication and will regain most of the weight. Every month someone stays on track is the return; the prescription is just the entry fee.
What happens to the weight after stopping 11
STEP 1 trial extension, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
Persistence is not fixed: one-year persistence by start year 12
Prime Therapeutics, 33,607 patients. The gain came from better side-effect management and access, which is what support between fills does.
Soothe IV Med Spa · Employer brief · sootheiv.com/corporate-wellnessPage 1 of 2
3What keeps people on track: someone in their corner between fills
Employers have noticed. KFF, the nonprofit health-policy research organization, found that 34% of firms covering weight-loss GLP-1s now require members to work with a dietitian, case manager, therapist or lifestyle program, up from 10% a year earlier. 13 The reason is what happens on the medical side when weight actually comes off and stays off:
$1,861extra medical cost per year for an adult with obesity; about $3,100 with severe obesity (Harvard-led analysis of national data). 14
$1,685lost productivity per employee per year from illness-related absence, per the CDC Foundation. 15
1 in 3adults with employer coverage meet the BMI criteria for these medications, so the exposure is not a rounding error. 13
What companion-program vendors report (their own analyses, so treat as directional; independent actuaries have modeled five-year savings too) 16, 17, 18
67% vs 47–49%still on treatment at one year, with coaching vs. benchmark groups
63%held their weight a full year after stopping medication, with coaching continued
2.7–4.6 : 1claims-based return per dollar spent on the companion program
Three questions worth asking before you fund any GLP-1 program.
Who is the physician? A named medical director who signs every prescription, or a platform filling orders.
Who calls the employee in week three? Side effects, plateaus and dosing questions are where people quit. Someone clinical has to be there.
What is your exposure? You should know the company's share before the year starts, and it should not grow with the dose.
Approach
Persistence lever
Employer's number
Cover the drug through the PBM
None; PA and step therapy only
Open-ended pharmacy spend
Exclude it
None; people self-source online
$0, plus turnover risk 7
Physician-supervised program, nurse follow-up
Clinical contact between fills; coaching
A contribution you set
4The answer: a medical practice that stays with your people
We are a physician-owned medical practice, not a perks vendor. Our clinical team, under the supervision of our medical director, reviews every intake and lab, and the physician signs every prescription, all by telehealth. Then the part most programs skip: a team of registered nurses and health coaches stays with each employee through treatment, managing side effects and coaching nutrition, strength and sleep so the weight stays off. Employees can join on their own or the company can contribute; HR administers nothing and gets aggregate reporting only. Southern California employers can add on-site IV wellness days at no cost to HR. That is how a weight-loss benefit becomes lower medical costs and people who stay: your employees get a physician and a nurse who know them, and you get a number you can plan around.
Let's look at what this would mean for your team. 15 minutes with our clinical team. No slides, no pitch. Just your headcount, your plan, and what caring for your people this way would cost and save.
Mercer, National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans: cost to exceed $18,500 per employee in 2026. mercer.com
IFEBP, GLP-1 Drugs: 2026 Pulse Survey (U.S.) and 2025 release on GLP-1 share of claims. ifebp.org
Lockton, Why holistic GLP-1 strategies are needed now (2026). lockton.com
Manufacturer list prices as published on TrumpRx.gov (2026); NBC News, weight-loss drug prices in 2026. nbcnews.com
Sharma, Spiegel, Fronstin. GLP-1 Coverage and Its Impact on Employment-Based Health Plan Premiums. EBRI Issue Brief 644, 2025. ebri.org
Business Group on Health, 2026 GLP-1 survey of 127 employers (8.7M covered lives). businessgrouphealth.org
NFP, an Aon company, 2026 U.S. Benefits Trend Report. nfp.com
Blue Health Intelligence, Real-world trends in GLP-1 treatment persistence (Issue Brief, 2024; ~170,000 members). bcbs.com
Rodriguez PJ et al. Discontinuation and Reinitiation of Dual-Labeled GLP-1 Receptor Agonists. JAMA Network Open, 2025. jamanetwork.com
Prime Therapeutics, GLP-1 persistence at two and three years (2025). primetherapeutics.com
Wilding JPH et al. Weight regain after withdrawal of semaglutide: STEP 1 extension. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 2022. wiley.com
Gleason PP et al. Trends in 1-year persistence among GLP-1 initiators, 2021–2024. J Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 2026. jmcp.org
KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey; Peterson-KFF, Perspectives from employers on covering GLP-1s for weight loss (2025). healthsystemtracker.org
Ward ZJ et al. Association of BMI with health care expenditures in the U.S. PLOS ONE, 2021. plos.org
CDC Foundation, Worker illness and injury costs U.S. employers $225.8 billion annually (2015). cdcfoundation.org
Omada Health, GLP-1 companion program outcomes (vendor-reported). omadahealth.com
Wondr Health, Lessons learned: weight and GLP-1 benefits (vendor-reported). wondrhealth.com
Omada Health release, independent model of five-year gross medical savings (vendor-commissioned), 2026. globenewswire.com
Figures are quoted from the cited sources as published and are not Soothe IV Med Spa outcomes. Not medical, legal or actuarial advice. Weight-loss therapy requires a telehealth evaluation and physician clearance; not every applicant qualifies; some medications are compounded and not FDA-approved. IV wellness services are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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Questions employers ask about this brief
Do GLP-1 weight-loss drugs pay for themselves in an employer health plan? Not on drug spend alone at current prices. Lockton reports no demonstrable pharmacy-benefit ROI for weight-loss GLP-1 coverage, and EBRI's simulation puts the premium impact of broad coverage at 5.3% to 13.8%. The return, where it exists, comes from members who stay on treatment long enough to lose and keep off weight, which is why persistence and clinical support decide the outcome.
How many employees stop GLP-1 medication within a year? In real-world claims, about two-thirds of adults without diabetes discontinue within a year (64.8%, JAMA Network Open, 2025), and Blue Health Intelligence found 58% stop before reaching a clinically meaningful benefit, 30% within the first month. Persistence is improving: Prime Therapeutics measured one-year persistence rising from 33% in 2021 to 61% for 2024 starts, but only about one in seven members remains on therapy at two years.
What happens to weight after someone stops a GLP-1? In the STEP 1 trial extension, participants regained two-thirds of their lost weight within one year of stopping semaglutide, with cardiometabolic measures reverting similarly. That is why a drug-only benefit with high early dropout returns little durable value to the plan.
Why do a third of employers now require a companion program with GLP-1 coverage? Because the dropout drivers are clinical and manageable: unmanaged side effects, plateaus, cost and coverage loss. KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey found 34% of firms covering weight-loss GLP-1s now require members to work with a dietitian, case manager, therapist or lifestyle program, up from 10% a year earlier. A physician-supervised program with a nurse who follows up between fills addresses the same drivers.