Is the GLP-1 Honeymoon Over for Employees?
Ten percent of companies that currently cover GLP-1s for weight loss intend to cease coverage next year. Will more follow?
It has been the drug of the moment for several years, and prescriptions continue to grow at a fantastic scale. Indeed, the world can’t seem to get enough of GLP-1s for weight loss. Except for the companies that are now backing away.
According to a survey by Business Group on Health, some 10% of firms that currently cover GLP-1s are planning to yank the coverage next year. And most experts say it may not stop there. The reason is obvious: the cost. While company figures are not widely available, the expenditures on the drug skyrocketed to $80 billion last year, from $15 billion in 2024. “CEOs are saying, ‘Look at the financial savings over time!’” says Scott Sette, senior client partner in the Healthcare practice at Korn Ferry. “Employees are obviously going to have some hard feelings about it.”, some 10% of firms that currently cover GLP-1s
Eleven percent of US adults currently take GLP-1s for weight loss, up from 3% in 2024, according to new figures from Gallup; one in six have done so in recent years. Currently, slightly more than half of firms cover the weight-loss drugs if another chronic disease is present, according to International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEB).
To be sure, GLP-1s are not just about weight loss. Patients taking them commonly experience profound lifestyle shifts that can revitalize everything from careers to relationships. “Companies might think more about the longer-term benefits to their employee base,” says Dennis Deans, global human resources business partner at Korn Ferry. The impact is reflected in US obesity rates, which have dropped from a high of 39.9% in 2022 to 36.4% this year, according to Gallup.
Yet the case for GLP-1s' long-term value runs counter to how health plans are typically managed. GLP-1 drugs accounted for 11.4% of annual employer health claims in 2025, according to figures from IFEB. “Health insurance is largely priced on expected claims over the next year, not on potential health outcomes five or ten years from now,” says Ron Seifert, North America workforce rewards and benefits leader at Korn Ferry. As a result, many employers focus on managing immediate costs and usage—like the 27% who steer employees to direct-to-consumer platforms for GLP-1s.
Pricing for long-term gains is at odds with how benefits managers model costs. “We price insurance based on claims and short-term probabilities,” says Seifert.
Experts advise caution around simply dropping weight-loss GLP-1 coverage. A sophisticated GLP-1 coverage model can be more nuanced, limiting costs via a combination of prior authorization, body-mass levels, physician recommendations, and other factors. A third of companies already make participation in lifestyle-modification programs mandatory as part of GLP-1 coverage. “I’d move toward a policy that is more medically necessary—not eliminating coverage, but making it more stringent,” says Greg Button, Korn Ferry’s president of global healthcare services. Eliminating the drugs outright is best avoided, he says, because it can inadvertently set a precedent and create barriers for other categories of coverage, such psychiatry medications, down the line.
Sette advises firms to address the matter with employees well before the coverage change goes into effect, tying messaging to the company’s financial health. “Rather than focus on GLP-1s specifically,” says Sette, “talk about how healthcare benefits can best impact the whole organization.”
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