The share of employers covering GLP-1s for both diabetes and weight loss has held steady at 36% year over year, according to a survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.
The survey was conducted June 2 to June 12. The foundation represents more than 31,000 multiemployer, corporate and public sector members representing over 25 million lives.
Twelve key findings:
- In 2026, 60% of employers cover GLP-1 drugs for diabetes only, 36% cover them for both diabetes and weight loss, 3% don’t cover them at all and 2% are not sure. No respondents said they cover GLP-1s for weight loss only.
- In 2025, 55% of employers covered GLP-1s for diabetes only, 36% covered them for diabetes and weight loss, 5% didn’t cover them and 4% weren’t sure.
- Among employers that cover GLP-1s for at least one indication, 45% also cover the drugs for other FDA-approved conditions beyond diabetes and weight loss, while 55% do not.
- Among employers that only cover GLP-1s for diabetes or don’t cover them at all, 62% are not considering adding weight loss coverage, 19% previously covered GLP-1s for weight loss but no longer do, 10% are not sure and 9% are considering it.
- Among that same group, 83% are not covering weight loss GLP-1s or have carved them out of their benefits plan. To address weight loss otherwise, 27% encourage employees to use a direct-to-consumer platform, 21% encourage use of an FSA, HSA or integrated HRA, 7% use none of the above and 1% offer a specialized HRA for GLP-1s.
- Among all employers offering some diabetes or weight loss benefit, 74% cover disease/case/chronic care management, 61% cover nutritional counseling, 61% cover bariatric surgery, 46% cover lifestyle modification programs, 43% cover other non-GLP-1 prescription drugs, 33% cover medication-free weight-loss interventions and 3% offer none of these.
- Among employers weighing GLP-1 coverage for weight loss, the top considerations are broker/consultant/PBM recommendations (58%), obesity as a risk factor for chronic disease and associated costs (46%), the impact of cost-control mechanisms on premiums (44%), long-term costs and difficulty measuring outcomes (41%) and availability of direct-to-consumer options (39%).
- Among employers that cover GLP-1s for weight loss, 72% do so through the prescription drug benefit within their plan, 26% use a standalone prescription drug benefit and 20% use a weight management vendor.
- Among employers using a minimum BMI to determine eligibility, 37% require a BMI under 30, 38% set the threshold at exactly 30 and 25% require a BMI over 30.
- Among employers covering GLP-1s for weight loss, GLP-1s represented an average of 11.4% of total annual claims in 2025, up from a 10.5% average in 2024. More than a quarter of employers (26%) said GLP-1s for weight loss made up more than 15% of their total annual claims in 2025.
- Among employers covering GLP-1s for weight loss, the most common cost-control mechanisms are utilization management (79%) and eligibility requirements (72%), followed by step therapy (12%) and limiting formulary coverage to a single GLP-1 drug (10%).
- Among employers using utilization management, 95% require prior authorization and 33% require reauthorization for refills. Among employers using eligibility requirements, 90% use a minimum BMI, 54% require obesity with one other chronic disease and 29% require a lifestyle modification program.
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