Improve GLP-1 effectiveness for weight loss with condition management
Drive sustainable behavior change for better health outcomes and cost savings
Daniel Knecht, MD, MBA, Vice President & Chief Clinical Innovation Officer
There's a lot we're still learning about how weight management medications, including GLP-1s and GIP/GLP-1s, work and their full clinical potential. We do know that these medications work better when paired with proper dosing and lifestyle support.
Care management programs, such as the CVS Weight Management program, can help boost the efficacy of these medications by keeping members engaged and motivated.
6x total weight loss for members previously struggling to lose weight on medication alone1
Watch the video to learn more about how the program is helping plan members achieve better results.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
STEFIE BRADLEY: Only 30% of members were following a nutrition plan before enrolling in our program. And these medications you want to achieve optimal weight loss, or for all of you investing in these medications for your members for weight loss, they need to be paired with a nutrition plan.
So the first group, they were only at a 1.5% weight loss-- so not much, just taking the medication. After six months, they're now down-- they were down to a 9.2% weight loss, so on a much better path to reaching that optimal 15% in weight loss, or in other words, 6 times more weight loss on the program than when they were just taking the medication alone.
High-touch support, meeting members where they are
Following clinical and drug manufacturer guidelines, we developed a weight management program that integrates high-touch, coordinated care and lifestyle interventions that may include the use of GLP-1s for weight loss. It has been carefully designed for clinical integrity and to meet the needs of payors and members alike and aligns with the drugs’ FDA-approved prescriber labels.
Our approach is to support members motivated to lose weight through a high-touch, customized program that is flexible to best meet member needs:
- Proactive member outreach and high-touch oversight to help ensure appropriate use and maximize clinical efficacy of drug therapy
- Nutrition and lifestyle coaching from an obesity-certified registered dietitian to position members for success
- Live clinician visits in a virtual setting that are frequent and convenient
- Dosing adjustments, when appropriate, managed by a provider, which in some instances may be an endocrinologist
- Diet-agnostic nutrition plan tailored to fit individual needs, including social determinants of health, culturally relevant diets, dietary restrictions, and food preferences
- Food journaling made as easy as snapping a photo
Members who prefer not to take these medications, or who have had adverse side effects from them, receive a similar level of support from registered dietitians, through a lower-touch, app-based model.
The program’s flexibility allows us to create a customized solution to meet clients’ plan design goals. Combining prevention and therapy support, the program can coordinate with your overall strategy to help ensure appropriate medication use and maximize therapy effectiveness.
See what ongoing engagement can look like for your members in this clip from a recent webinar.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
STEFIE BRADLEY: It's harder and harder to engage members. So we are incredibly excited to see we have nearly 90% for our engagement rate. And the question we often get is, well, how do you define engagement? We're defining that as they're meeting with their registered dietician and that's at least once a month. But what we're seeing on average is that members are engaging with their registered dietician every week. They're logging those biometrics weekly as well. And this is what we want to see.
This program, it's tailored to the member, to their needs. So maybe someone is talking constantly to their registered dietician, whether it's through a phone session or the two-way messaging. Maybe someone's now at a point where they're in a more steady state, so it's just more of some intermittent check-ins with their registered dietician. We want that to be tailored, but we want that interaction there so we can support the members.
A comprehensive, coordinated care model
Dedicated care team
Many members who have been prescribed weight loss drugs are not getting the right level of support or care. Implementing a care management solution provides a higher level of coordinated care, which can drive better outcomes and lower costs. Our coordinated care team offers a comprehensive approach to maximize the clinical efficacy of GLP-1s for weight loss:
Registered dietitian
Develops personalized nutrition plan and supports member with sustained lifestyle change
Provider oversight
Adjust medications as needed, prescribe when appropriate, and manage side effects
Primary care provider
Notified and consulted as medications are adjusted
Digital app
- View lab orders and results
- Chat with a registered dietitian
- Browse meal recommendations
- Track biometrics (A1C, weight and more)
In addition to helping boost the efficacy of weight management drugs, early adopters of the program also realized a cost savings of 22 percent on weight management GLP-1s compared with clients that did not adopt the program.2
As the treatment landscape for metabolic health continues to evolve, CVS Caremark is supporting employer and health plan clients by creating solutions that allow for a balanced approach to managing cost and care.
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*Conditions for ROI guarantee apply, and full guarantee requires final sign-off by CVS Caremark Actuarial and Underwriting.
The source for data in this document is CVS Health Enterprise Analytics, unless otherwise noted.
Adherence results may vary based upon a variety of factors such as plan design, demographics and programs adopted by the plan. Client-specific modeling available upon request.
Savings will vary based upon a variety of factors including things such as plan design, demographics, and programs implemented by the plan.
CVS Health uses and shares data as allowed by applicable law, and by our agreements and our information firewall.
This document contains references to brand-name prescription drugs that are trademarks or registered trademarks of pharmaceutical manufacturers not affiliated with CVS Health.
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