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 .

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."