Waltz Health tackling GLP-1 management with Noom
The end-to-end program is meant to help employees more seamlessly access and manage their GLP-1 prescriptions.
Photo: Kseniya Ovchinnikova/Getty Images
Waltz Health, a digital health company focusing on the pricing and distribution of prescription medications, is collaborating with digital chronic disease prevention company Noom on a new weight loss program the two describe as comprehensive and more affordable.
Using Waltz Connect, the two companies are engineering a joint offering that will provide an end-to-end program meant to help employees access and manage their GLP-1 prescriptions. Waltz Connect is an end-to-end solution that manages all aspects of an organization's specialty medication coverage, and includes proprietary technology and patient engagement support.
It also includes a marketplace with a network of specialty pharmacies that compete on price, service levels and clinical outcomes, Waltz said.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT
The joint employer solution will be part of Noom Med, a clinical obesity management solution that combines evidence-based obesity care with a behavior change program to help members achieve sustained weight loss while lowering employer costs.
Once an employee qualifies for a GLP-1 prescription, Waltz Connect will support the patient with access to their prescribed medication, including dispensing and application of all available discounts for a lower price. Employees can see their price in advance in the Noom app before proceeding.
Waltz and Noom expect this will increase price transparency for employees while also saving money for the employer.
Launched in August, Waltz Connect attempts to provide transparency by promoting competition among specialty pharmacies. Because the design is flexible, Waltz said, it can be deployed across entire specialty-drug formularies, on specific drug classes like GLP-1s, or even down to individual drugs.
Waltz Connect is built on Waltz Health's Intelligent Specialty Engine, which is an AI-enabled prescription routing software that finds the best and most appropriate specialty pharmacy option based on specific criteria selected by each payer.
Workers who are overweight and those experiencing obesity are estimated to have cost about $425.5 billion to business and employees in the U.S., a GlobalData report found. And data published in the National Library of Medicine showed that while GLP-1 drugs have been shown to be an effective treatment for obesity and associated cardiovascular issues, they can be cost prohibitive for many people and their employees.
THE LARGER TREND
Waltz Health entered into the Medicare Advantage arena in February, offering health plans that support Medicare beneficiaries' customizable configurations of its proprietary Marketplace Search technology, which lowers prescription drug prices for members while also providing health plans with insight into adherence trends.
Marketplace Search is a white-labeled digital search engine that applies AI to a curated mix of discounted drug pricing sources to help healthcare organizations – including health plans, PBMs, pharmacies and self-insured employers – save their populations money when filling prescriptions.
For plans that support Medicare beneficiaries, the use cases for Marketplace Search can vary depending on their needs. According to Waltz, it gives health plans a tool to assist members in finding savings on covered medications during a coverage gap, finding lower-cost, cash-pay solutions for medication not covered by their plan, and finding patient-assistance programs available to the Medicare population.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
