Navigating The Nexus

Our briefing last month,;Are Obesity & Behavioral Health The Drivers, highlighted a new analysis projecting national commercial health care costs would increase by 8% next year—driven mainly by spending on obesity drugs like Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and the increase in behavioral health spending. Utilization of GLP-1 agonists rose from 1.6% of total prescription costs per plan member in 2021 to 6.3% in 2023.;And behavioral health service utilization has increased 40% since the pandemic—with 30% of health plans listed behavioral health services as one of the ‘top three’ areas . . .