April 5, 2025 — We should be used to this by now. For years, we’ve urged policymakers to find a way out of the box that has Medicare denying coverage for obesity. This time, it seemed we were close. But close doesn’t count. Late yesterday, the Trump administration said “CMS is not finalizing” provisions of a proposed rule that […]
March 31, 2025 — A new interview with ConscienHealth founder Ted Kyle offers a long view of more than two decades of work on obesity. The interview explores a core question that people ask all the time: Are we making progress in flipping the script on obesity? Or are we still fighting the same misunderstanding of obesity that has […]
March 29, 2025 — These are indeed interesting times for folks who care about the need that so many people have for obesity care. Medicines for obesity, with the advent of GLP-1 agonists, have become much better. Thus the demand for metabolic surgery has slipped a bit. Most metabolic surgeons have seen this in the volume of cases that […]
March 27, 2025 — Yesterday in JAMA Network Open, researchers from the University of Michigan published a finding that older Americans say Medicare should indeed cover obesity medicines. Authors Lauren Oshman and colleagues present straightforward conclusions: “In this survey study of older US adults, most participants agreed that Medicare should cover weight management medications and more than half of […]
March 26, 2025 — In the U.S., we are at a critical point for the sourcing obesity medicines. March 19 was the last day that FDA would tolerate large scale compounding of tirzepatide on account of the now resolved shortage of that drug. The same milestone for semaglutide is coming up on May 22. Some people are not happy. […]
March 24, 2025 — There’s no denying it. More people are getting access to care for obesity than ever before. In part this is because health professionals have a range of tools for providing that care. GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide are a big part of that.But those drugs carry a price tag that is blowing up pharmacy […]
March 18, 2025 — We’ve been living with the consensus report of the Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity now for two months. Enough time has passed for feelings about the strengths and limitations of this work to take shape. A new commentary in the BMJ yesterday brings a sharp focus to the struggle of defining and dealing with current […]
March 15, 2025 — A new analysis in JAMA Health Forum yesterday shines a harsh light on pricing for new obesity medicines. In a rigorous econometric analysis, researchers found that new and highly effective medicines for obesity – Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) – are both overpriced. They also found that the price and value of Wegovy was out […]
March 10, 2025 — Seemingly limitless demand for obesity meds, botox, and lip fillers is driving robust growth for med spas in the U.S. The medical spa industry reports expansion from 1,600 locations in 2010 to more than 10,000 in 2023. The revenue for an average spa more than doubled to $1.4 million per spa. In 2023, that added […]
March 6, 2025 — Prices are moving quickly for people seeking obesity treatment with semaglutide and tirzepatide. Last week, Lilly offered another price cut for Zepbound. At the time, we noted inaction from Novo Nordisk on this front. But it barely took a week for this formerly unchallenged market leader to step up and respond with a huge price […]
