CVS Health CEO David Joyner is skeptical as to whether the evidence backs GLP-1 investment right now.
“Everybody intuitively believes these medications create long-term health benefits, but the evidence hasn’t yet demonstrated that paying today’s prices generates enough downstream savings,” he said in a July 12 report from The Washington Post. “The economics simply aren’t there yet.”
CVS has multiple GLP-1 touchpoints, including through its insurance business, Aetna, and formularies with pharmacy benefit manager Caremark.
Mr. Joyner’s comments follow his company’s recalibration of its GLP-1 approach. In 2025, Caremark selected Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy as its preferred GLP-1 medication for its largest commercial template formularies. Amid legal challenges regarding coverage denials for Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, CVS walked back its preferential treatment of just Wegovy.
In April, Bloomberg reported that CVS would not participate in CMS’ voluntary Better Approaches to Lifestyle and Nutrition for Comprehensive Health model pilot for Medicare Part D. BALANCE, an initiative in which CMS would have negotiated lower GLP-1 prices with drug manufacturers, was ultimately put on hold for Part D as it needed to meet a critical mass of sponsors. Instead, CMS extended its Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program, which does not require insurer participation.
CVS is far from the only major healthcare company reckoning with GLP-1 coverage. Some insurers have been scaling back their GLP-1 coverage offerings, with some attributing the drug class to hundreds of millions in operating losses or drug costs.
In July, Cigna stopped covering GLP-1s for weight loss within its own employee health plan. The update did not apply to Cigna’s customer-facing plans, but the decision highlights the financial constraints employers — including some of the most innovative pharmacy organizations — are under when it comes to weight-loss drugs. In May 2025, a Cigna executive said about half of the client base at Evernorth is electing to cover GLP-1s for weight loss. For Cigna Healthcare clients, which were mostly smaller employers, the share was 15% to 20%.
Still, there is emerging evidence that long-term GLP-1 use may temper costs. In early 2026, Aon found that medical cost growth for people using GLP-1s for weight loss slowed by 3 percentage points compared to non-users between 12 and 18 months of use, and by 7 percentage points among those with at least 80% adherence.
Based on the research, overall costs for GLP-1 users were still higher than for non-users, largely driven by the drugs’ prices. Even with rebates, the price tag is a sticking point for CVS.
“Eli Lilly has become an extraordinarily successful company — the first trillion-dollar healthcare company in the United States,” Mr. Joyner said in the Post. “They’re not going to lower prices until competition forces them to.”
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