Drugstores say Medicare's $50 obesity drug program is catching on

Many Medicare beneficiaries can now get coverage for obesity drugs such as Wegovy. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

Starting in July, Medicare began allowing eligible beneficiaries to get obesity drugs for $50 a month. Less than two months in, CVS and Walgreens tell NPR they've each filled around 100,000 such prescriptions.

The prescriptions were made possible as part of a pilot called the Bridge program.

By law, Medicare is barred from paying for weight loss drugs, but the administration came up with a workaround. Medicare will cover the drug, if a person meets certain conditions, such as having obesity combined with high blood pressure that's hard to control .

Healthcare

Medicare's pilot GLP-1 discount program has a catch. Some sick patients don't qualify

However, beneficiaries are ineligible if they have sleep apnea or Type 2 diabetes, because Medicare part D should already cover GLP-1 drugs for those conditions. The Bridge program is set to run through the end of 2027.

"We expected there would be uptake," says Walgreens' chief pharmacy officer Rick Gates, explaining that stores around the country stocked extra Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo to prepare for the July launch. "I think there's been a little bit more uptake than we even expected."

Walgreens pharmacies had to adjust a little as the program got up and running, but haven't run into any supply issues, Gates says. Around half of the patients Walgreens has served as part of the Bridge program had never taken GLP-1s before, he adds.

"That's the part where pharmacies naturally will lean in," he says, explaining that it's important to make sure patients don't stop therapy because of the initial side effects, such as nausea and diarrhea. "Those are the things that pharmacists can really help with."

CVS says it has filled more than 100,000 Bridge prescriptions as of mid-August. The pharmacy chain says it also has options for people who aren't eligible for the program. "CVS Pharmacy accepts a wide range of third-party prescription discount cards, manufacturer coupons, and manufacturer vouchers to help reduce out-of-pocket costs," the company wrote in a statement to NPR.

Walmart also serves as a pharmacy for many patients around the country. The store chain didn't provide a number for Bridge program prescriptions it has filled, but it did say that those prescriptions have been growing week over week. "Bridge prescriptions have now been processed at more than 5,000 Walmart and Sam's Club pharmacies nationwide," the company added in a statement to NPR.

Millions of beneficiaries could be eligible

Jeremy Shane, a nonresident scholar at the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service, says the numbers retail pharmacy chains shared with NPR show that seniors are making use of the temporary program.

"I think those are big numbers and they're encouraging about the demand for those medications," he says. "Before Bridge started, Medicare had estimated roughly about 4 million Medicare recipients might qualify for the program. And so if you figure this is 200,000 and, you know, there might be as many as twice as many that are out there through other chain drugstores and other prescription pharmacies. That's, you know, somewhere between 5% and 10% of the eligible population in just a short period of time."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not provide NPR with figures for how many people are taking advantage of the Bridge program. But CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a video posted to the social media platform X on July 29 that 250,000 beneficiaries had signed up. It's not clear whether those people were able to get their prior authorizations approved, which is required to fill Bridge program prescriptions.

Weighing cost and value

The administration hasn't said how much the 18-month Bridge program could cost, but the nonpartisan health research group KFF took a stab.

It estimates that the bill could run between $1.3 billion and $10 billion, depending on how many of the nearly 4 million eligible beneficiaries participate. For context, KFF says that Medicare Part D spending on prescription drugs in 2025 was $181 billion.

Shane at USC says there's more to it than that. "I think that the Bridge program is actually a great opportunity to refactor how we think about the price of medications and cost," says Shane. "And my personal perspective is cost is the wrong way of looking at it."

He says it's important to look at the value of these medications over time.

Shane published a research paper a few years ago that concluded expanding Medicare access to GLP-1s 10 years could reduce healthcare spending and improve quality of life. If people become healthier by taking GLP-1 medicines, society could spend less on other health complications, such as dialysis and hospitalizations.

"When you think about it, almost all of Medicare's costs are for people who have multiple chronic conditions and given age, they deteriorate over time," he says. "And so the value for Medicare is how can we stop or slow or prevent the progression of disease? And the longer they can do that, the bigger the value is at the end."

NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews. Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR.