Bank of America Spends $250 Million Annually on Weight-Loss Drugs for Its Employees. Why, in Heaven’s Name?
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s bank’s chief executive, told CNBC this week that a quarter of a billion dollars on GLP-1 weight-loss medication is up from zero about five years ago.
Against a health care bill topping $2 billion for roughly 211,000 employees, the drugs alone now account for about 13 cents of every dollar the bank spends on workers’ health. He said it is a good investment.
The long game
Moynihan pointed to the long-run payoff of a healthier workforce, and to early research suggesting these drugs may lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes sooner than expected. The bank does not just hand over a prescription, either. It pairs the medication with coaching to help workers manage weight and habits, betting that support makes the results stick.
He was candid about the holes in the math. Some employees will leave for other jobs long before Bank of America ever collects on their improved health.
Moynihan’s view is that it remains the right thing to do. On cost, he made clear the bank is leaning hard on drugmakers and pharmacy intermediaries to push the price down, using its size as leverage. Even so, he framed the whole outlay as money well spent.
Bucking the trend
About 36% of employers cover GLP-1s for both diabetes and weight loss, according to a recent survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. That share did not budge from a year earlier. Many plans that cover the drugs at all cover them only for diabetes, leaving the weight-loss prescription off the list.
Cost is the sticking point, and the survey shows why. GLP-1s now account for 11.4% of annual drug claims among employers, up from 6.9% just three years ago. Faced with that climb, roughly one in five employers who once covered the drugs for weight loss have since pulled the benefit back. That is the pressure Moynihan is choosing to absorb.
The price of weight loss
Employer plans are the doorway to mass use, which is why Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have been pushing to widen coverage rather than wait for it. Both now sell directly to cash-paying patients at a fraction of the old list price, which still runs north of $1,000 a month.
Lilly’s Zepbound goes for roughly $299 to $449 a month through its direct program, depending on dose, and Novo’s Wegovy sits around $349, with a lower introductory rate on starter doses.
Those discounts matter because demand is not the problem. Price is. Every employer that adds coverage, and every price the manufacturers shave, widens the pool of people who can actually afford to stay on a drug that only works while you take it.
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Place your bets
When a big bank bets that a quarter of a billion dollars a year on weight-loss treatment is a good investment, it is worth a second look. Bluntly, it suggests the people running the numbers increasingly see these drugs as cheaper than the heart attacks and diabetes they may head off.
If your employer does not pay, you need to decide whether it is worth it yourself.
