White Paper

Weighing the Options: Keeping Track of New Obesity Drugs

Comorbid obesity can complicate recovery, and new drugs create new pharmacy considerations.
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White Paper Summary

Obesity is a known comorbid factor that negatively impacts recovery from injury and is associated with increased workers’ comp costs among non-minor injuries. According to NCCI, workers’ comp claims with a comorbid diagnosis have twice the medical costs of similar claims.

Obesity is a complex disease that occurs when an individual has a body mass index (BMI) – a rough estimate of body fat percentage – of 30 or higher. An estimated 42% of Americans are considered obese, putting them at risk for several serious diseases and health conditions.

The wide-ranging health impacts of obesity also lead to significant healthcare spending and employee costs.

In the last few years, there have been several new drugs approved for the treatment of obesity, along with an increase in the off-label prescribing of certain diabetes medications for the treatment of obesity. Some of these drugs have even gained serious media attention.

For more content like this from Healthesystems visit their RxInformer clinical journal website.

Healthesystems is a leading provider of Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) & Ancillary Benefits Management programs for the workers' compensation industry.