Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Credit: Nephron via Wikimedia Commons
Two popular health-care trends, telemedicine and promising new weight-loss drugs, continue to converge. The Mayo Clinic on Tuesday announced a new telehealth service that will offer direct access to GLP-1 weight-loss medications, shortly after Eli Lilly similarly launched LillyDirect.
The Mayo Clinic Diet Medical Weight Loss Rx program, which is available in beta form to qualifying members, also will provide lab testing to confirm medication suitability, clinical monitoring, insurance support, meal plan options, and coaching and education tools.
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"With this new program, Mayo Clinic Diet is now offering a complete clinical weight management solution," said Dr. Andres J. Acosta, M.D., Ph.D., the medical advisor to the program. "It provides valuable clinical support to ensure that patients use weight-loss medications effectively so they have every opportunity for weight-loss success.
The new offerings come amid a rise in direct-to-consumer telehealth startups that offer weight loss medications. Earlier this year, Eli Lilly started a new online service to provide telehealth prescriptions and direct home delivery of its weight-loss drug Zepbound. Lilly partnered with telehealth provider Form Health, which also offers prescriptions for non-Lilly drugs such as Wegovy.
GLP-1s come with a steep price tag, costing upward of $10,000 per year without insurance. Ozempic, Trulicity, Victoza and Mounjaro are FDA-approved to treat Type 2 diabetes, and Zepbound, Wegovy and Saxenda are approved for weight loss.
As demand for the medications continues to surge, payers and self-insured employers — including several major health systems and state health plans — have consistently ended or limited coverage over the last year.
Beginning this year, Mayo Clinic is limiting coverage for weight loss drugs through its employee health plan. The Mayo Medical Plan, administered by Medica, imposed a new lifetime limit of $20,000 for weight loss medication coverage. The coverage limit does not apply to GLP-1s prescribed to employees for diabetes.
Dr. Acosta has conducted several studies to help improve the lives of people with obesity. His most recent research found that combining weight loss medication with lifestyle modification improves weight loss 3x more than online weight loss alone.
Related: Eli Lilly's big move: Drugmaker now offering obesity drug Zepbound direct to consumers
"Mayo Clinic Diet now offers three specially curated programs," Acosta said. "Our flagship award-winning online diet program, an Rx companion program for those members currently using weight-loss medication, and the Medical Weight Loss Rx program launching today for new members looking for weight loss medication options."
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
