Connecticut’s employee health plan has experienced a 50% year-over-year rise in spending on glucagon-like-peptide-1 agonists (GLP-1s) used to treat obesity, beginning in 2020. In 2023, Connecticut partnered with FlyteHealth to launch a pilot of FlyteHealth’s comprehensive obesity care program. The program aimed to address rising costs associated with anti-obesity medications. FlyteHealth commissioned Milliman to independently analyze its initial observations on cost avoidance for the Connecticut employee health plan. The main sections of our analysis include the following:

• Background on obesity
• Lifestyle management programs
• GLP-1s
• Commercial weight-loss coverage and utilization management
• Cost-avoidance opportunities
• FlyteHealth case study
• Connecticut state self-insured employee health plan

This paper was commissioned by FlyteHealth.