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Tag: employee health

  • Why Employers Still Cover GLP-1 Drugs as Prices Skyrocket

    Among the workplace benefits employees say they appreciate most are flexible work arrangements, paid time off, 401(k) retirement accounts, career development programs, and of course company health insurance plans. But now, many businesses are scaling back or ending an increasingly popular benefit within their wider healthcare coverage – paying for workers’ use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medication for weight loss.

    Initially developed to treat diabetes by regulating blood sugar levels, GLP-1 medication has become increasingly popular for losing weight. Recent surveys found that 60 percent of people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Saxenda, and other versions of the drug did so primarily for weight loss. But that surging demand has led pharmaceutical manufactures to repeatedly hike their prices for GPL-1s, which has spiked the costs of employer coverage of the drugs. As a result, many businesses are now having to rethink the terms of including those medications in their plans, or remove them entirely.

    Most businesses had already had to adjust to the average 6 percent rise in their employee health insurance premiums this year, with many facing double-digit rises in 2026. At the same time, a recent joint study by nonprofits Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF determined employee use of GLP-1s has been far higher than anyone had anticipated — mostly due to the drug’s growing use for weight loss. Those factors are adding to the financial pinch for employer health plans and forcing them to respond.

    According to the Peterson-KFF survey, 19 percent of all employers with 200 employees or more cover GLP-1 use for losing weight in their health plans. But that rises to 30 percent among companies with 1,000-5,000 workers, and 43 percent for even bigger firms. Those latter figures represent a roughly 28 increase in coverage of the drug compared to 2024.

    Not surprisingly, nearly a quarter of all employers said staff use GLP-1 drugs for weight loss was higher than they expected, with that number rising to nearly 60 percent at larger businesses. That led nearly a third of respondents to report those medications had “significantly impacted their prescription drug spending,” rising to 66 percent at companies with 5,000 workers or more.

    “Before we knew it, we spent half a million dollars and were projected to go up to $1.2 million the following year,” a benefits manager with a retailing company said in anonymous comments to the Peterson-KFF survey about GLP-1 costs.

    Many employers are responding to both rising premiums and higher medication costs by passing on some of the increases to employees, and inching up co-pays workers have to finance. But that probably won’t be enough to offset the surging costs of GLP-1s. As a result, most companies are revising the way their plans cover the medication.

    Many businesses are limiting GLP-1 exclusively for diabetes treatment — with some requiring company health officials to approve that use beforehand. But because taking the medication has become so popular for weight loss, other employers don’t feel they can cut employees off from it.

    On the one hand, by covering the drug under company health plans, some employers have found GLP-1s have become a de facto benefit capable of attracting new recruits, while also helping to retain existing workers. Meantime, a lot of businesses have calculated that as expensive as the medication is, its effectiveness in helping weight loss has led to reduced costs related to employee cardiovascular diseases and other conditions attributed to obesity.

    Still, employers facing rising prices of the drug are having to stem its spreading use. In some cases, companies have decided to continue covering GLP-1s for weight loss, but only by employees above new body mass index (BMI) thresholds. Others additional measures include creating lifestyle and nutrition programs to make sure workers using the medication stay slimmer once they stop taking the medication.

    “(W)e put in the requirement that you have type 2 diabetes for certain GLP-1s, and then we put in a BMI of 35 or higher for the weight loss GLP-1s,” a HR official with a manufacturing company said in survey comments, noting some employees had been “grandfathered in” for continued use while others will need to qualify for it in the future. “We are trying to decide how to manage this crazy cost of the GLP-1s.”

    What’s behind that determination to keep covering GLP-1s?

    It comes partly from employers’ desire to safeguard employees’ health while sparing them much of the costs of doing that. At the same time, a lot of managers already recognize GLP-1 medications are likely to become ever bigger factors in healthcare coverage. That’s growing increasingly likely with the number of diseases the drug has been shown to improve continuing to multiply over time.

    As a result, even health insurance companies providing employee health coverage to business owners have warned that GLP-1 isn’t going away any time soon — whether the drugs are used for treating diabetes, losing weight, or addressing other conditions.

    “Our insurance provider, Cigna told us that within the next nine to 12 months, there’s really not going to be a choice,” said a health manager with a manufacturing company in the survey comments. “(A)ll insurance companies are probably going to be covering GLP-1s for weight loss.” 

    And as a result, many employers are resolving themselves to do likewise — though they’re starting so set some limits.

    Bruce Crumley

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  • Orlando, Orange County push back on DOGE wasteful spending accusations

    548. SEE YOU GUYS THEN. SEE YOU THEN. TONY. ALL RIGHT. THE STATE DOSE TEAM CONTINUES TO TARGET WHAT THEY CALL WASTEFUL SPENDING BY CITIES AND COUNTIES. ORLANDO IS TAKING THE LATEST HIT FROM REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. BUT AS WESH TWO NEWS POLITICAL REPORTER GREG FOX EXPLAINS, THE STATE IS LEAVING OUT KEY INFORMATION. ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE. OUR PROPERTY TAXES ARE HIGH BECAUSE OF YOU. USING RHYME AND METER, REPUBLICAN CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER BLAISE INGOGLIA BLASTED SPENDING IN THE CITY OF ORLANDO DURING THE PAST TWO MONTHS, THE CFO AND STATE DOSAGE TEAM HAVE BEEN REVIEWING SPENDING IN THE CITY AND IN ORANGE COUNTY. THEY FLAGGED SEVERAL PROGRAMS, INCLUDING $460,000 SPENT COUNTING TREES, $150,000 SPENT ON ASSISTANCE FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS, $67,500 OVER FIVE YEARS FOR HOT YOGA CLASSES, AND $6,000 ANNUALLY FOR A POET LAUREATE. THE PEOPLE KEEP ASKING, WHERE DOES IT GO? THE COFFERS RUN EMPTY, YET TAXES STILL GROW IN THE HALLS OF THE CITY. ONE LESSON IS CLEAR WASTEFUL SPENDING ECHOES YEAR AFTER YEAR. I CAUGHT UP WITH MAYOR BUDDY DYER AND HE SAYS THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER MAY HAVE WANTED TO DO A LITTLE MORE HOMEWORK BEFORE MAKING HIS REMARKS. IT’S ALL POLITICS. IT SHOULD BE BENEATH THEM. MAYOR DYER EXPLAINED THAT THE YOGA PROGRAM IS PART OF EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND WELLNESS, AND THE ASSERTION THAT THE CITY IS WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY. COUNTING TREES DOESN’T HOLD WATER. ACCORDING TO THE MAYOR, BECAUSE THE PROGRAM OF ENSURING THE HEALTH OF THE CITY’S TREE CANOPY ISN’T FUNDED WITH LOCAL TAX DOLLARS, STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING. AND WE HAVE A TREE TRUST FUND WHERE IF YOU TAKE DOWN A TREE, YOU’VE GOT TO PAY INTO IT. SO NO GENERAL FUND RELATED TO THAT. SO THEY DIDN’T DIG VERY DEEP IN TERMS OF THEIR ANALYSIS AND CRITICIZING MONEY SPENT ON THE CITY’S POET LAUREATE. SEAN, WELCOME. DURING THE PAST FOUR YEARS, THE MAYOR POINTS OUT IT WAS MODELED AFTER THE STATE’S POET LAUREATE PROGRAM THAT’S BEEN AROUND FOR NEARLY A CENTURY, AND MONEY THAT GOES TO THE ORLANDO CENTER FOR JUSTICE TO ASSIST THOSE WITH IMMIGRATION CASES IS NOT FROM THE GENERAL FUND, BUT THROUGH GRANTS. RESPONDING TO CONTINUED CRITICISM FROM THE CFO ABOUT ORANGE COUNTY SPENDING, MAYOR JERRY DEMINGS RELEASED A STATEMENT SAYING ORANGE COUNTY TAKES ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO TAXPAYERS SERIOUSLY, AND WE STAND BY THE INVESTMENTS WE MAKE IN OUR COMMUNITY COVERING ORANGE COUNTY. GREG FOX, WESH TWO NEWS. THE STATE HAS GIVEN NO TIMETABLE ON WHEN THEY

    Orlando, Orange County push back on DOGE wasteful spending accusations

    Updated: 6:56 PM EDT Oct 2, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    “Roses are red, violets are blue. Our property taxes are high because of you,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said during a Jacksonville news conference. The Republican used rhyme and meter to blast spending in the city of Orlando and Orange County, spending on programs that conservative leadership in Tallahassee considers wasteful and unnecessary. During the past two months, the CFO and state DOGE team have been reviewing spending in the city and county. Ingoglia flagged several programs in Orlando, including $460,000 spent “counting” trees, $150,000 spent on assistance for undocumented immigrants, $67,500 over five years for hot yoga classes and $6,000 annually for a poet laureate. Focusing on the poet laureate, Ingoglia said, “The people keep asking, where does it go? The coffers run empty, yet taxes still grow. In the halls of the city, one lesson is clear: wasteful spending echoes year after year.” WESH 2 News talked with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who said the CFO may not have done all the homework he should have before making his remarks, with Dyer adding, “It’s all politics. It should be beneath them.”Dyer explained that the yoga program is part of employee health and wellness, which is encouraged in cities and counties across the country. The assertion that the city is wasting taxpayer money counting trees doesn’t hold water, according to the mayor, because the program of ensuring the health of the city’s tree canopy isn’t funded with tax dollars, with Dyer adding, “That’s funded with state and federal grants. It is a State Department of Agriculture program that we’re doing, and we have a tree trust fund that, when you take down a tree, you have to pay into it. So there is no general fund in that. So they didn’t dig very deep in terms of their analysis.” Addressing the money spent on the city’s poet laureate, who has been Shawn Welcome during the past four years, the mayor points out that it was modeled after the state’s poet laureate program, that’s been around since 1927.It’s worth noting that the state does not pay a stipend to the poet laureate. Orlando had been paying less annually, but for the new poet laureate named this month, the annual stipend will amount to $6,000, up from $4,000 annually for Welcome. And money that goes to the Orlando Center for Justice, to assist those with immigration cases, is not from the general fund, but through grants. Responding to continued criticism from the CFO about Orange County spending, Mayor Jerry Demings released a statement saying, “Orange County takes its responsibility to taxpayers seriously, and we stand by the investments we make in our community.”

    ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —

    “Roses are red, violets are blue. Our property taxes are high because of you,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said during a Jacksonville news conference.

    The Republican used rhyme and meter to blast spending in the city of Orlando and Orange County, spending on programs that conservative leadership in Tallahassee considers wasteful and unnecessary.

    During the past two months, the CFO and state DOGE team have been reviewing spending in the city and county.

    Ingoglia flagged several programs in Orlando, including $460,000 spent “counting” trees, $150,000 spent on assistance for undocumented immigrants, $67,500 over five years for hot yoga classes and $6,000 annually for a poet laureate.

    Focusing on the poet laureate, Ingoglia said, “The people keep asking, where does it go? The coffers run empty, yet taxes still grow. In the halls of the city, one lesson is clear: wasteful spending echoes year after year.”

    WESH 2 News talked with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who said the CFO may not have done all the homework he should have before making his remarks, with Dyer adding, “It’s all politics. It should be beneath them.”

    Dyer explained that the yoga program is part of employee health and wellness, which is encouraged in cities and counties across the country.

    The assertion that the city is wasting taxpayer money counting trees doesn’t hold water, according to the mayor, because the program of ensuring the health of the city’s tree canopy isn’t funded with tax dollars, with Dyer adding, “That’s funded with state and federal grants. It is a State Department of Agriculture program that we’re doing, and we have a tree trust fund that, when you take down a tree, you have to pay into it. So there is no general fund in that. So they didn’t dig very deep in terms of their analysis.”

    Addressing the money spent on the city’s poet laureate, who has been Shawn Welcome during the past four years, the mayor points out that it was modeled after the state’s poet laureate program, that’s been around since 1927.

    It’s worth noting that the state does not pay a stipend to the poet laureate. Orlando had been paying less annually, but for the new poet laureate named this month, the annual stipend will amount to $6,000, up from $4,000 annually for Welcome.

    And money that goes to the Orlando Center for Justice, to assist those with immigration cases, is not from the general fund, but through grants.

    Responding to continued criticism from the CFO about Orange County spending, Mayor Jerry Demings released a statement saying, “Orange County takes its responsibility to taxpayers seriously, and we stand by the investments we make in our community.”

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  • Why Not Taking Sick Days Sends Your Team the Wrong Message

    In past decades, unofficial, and usually unacknowledged extra credit was given to employees feeling under the weather who still came in and ground on with the job. But those office Brownie points of yore have now morphed into hard-edged recriminations. According to new survey data, released as the annual cold and flu season looms, people are sick of seeing coworkers coming into the office while ill, and want them to stop, stay home, and get well instead.

    The demise of formerly unvoiced respect that business owners and staff felt for colleagues who pushed through an illness to do their jobs was captured in a survey commissioned by Zipfizz, a sugar-free, uncaffeinated energy drink maker. Nearly a third of the 2,000 respondents to the poll conducted by Talker Research said they saw nothing honorable or commendable about someone coming into the office while sick. In fact, a majority of participants didn’t think there was anything to gain by people working while they build a rising mound of used tissues. Just 25 percent of people thought a boss might possibly still be impressed by a worker toiling away between bouts of sneezing and coughing.

    Worse still, large numbers of respondents said they’d developed negative feelings for sick colleagues who’ve turned up at their desks hacking away. Around 42 percent of survey participants said their relationship would suffer with a colleague coming in to work sick. That view was even stronger among Gen Z and Millennial participants, 64 percent of whom said they consider that pushing-through-it behavior “selfish.”

    The pandemic experience has clearly altered workplace attitudes that previously praised — or at least benignly ignored — people who’d regularly come into the office while ill. Indeed, a 2024 survey found American employees saying they worked an average 84 hours each year while sick, with nearly half saying they usually did that rather than taking time off.

    Now, by contrast, 57 percent of Zipfizz survey participants said their attitudes and behavior toward illness had changed as a result of pandemic experiences. Consequently, 70 percent of them said they’re more cautious about hygiene and sickness than before, with 86 percent saying they now become concerned about their own health when a coworker trundles into the office under the weather.

    “The results of this survey reflect a significant cultural shift where taking care of one’s health is increasingly seen as more important than ‘powering through’ an illness,” said Zipfizz spokesperson Marcela Kanalos in comments accompanying the results. “While some may still feel compelled to show up despite being sick, it’s clear that both personal well-being and social relationships are now top priorities for many, especially among younger generations who value boundaries and respect in social interactions.”

    Resentment in the workplace over people coming in sick is all the more significant in it rarely arising from employer coercion. Just 22 percent of currently employed respondents said they felt pressure from managers to work through an illness.

    That lack of employer compulsion may be a big factor in why many workers who’ve focused on staying healthy since the pandemic get so irate when a coworker starts coughing and sneezing in the next cubicle.

    As numerous threads on social media platform Reddit suggest, there are still a lot of people coming to work sick — and infecting colleagues with resentment — despite the recent global struggle with Covid.

    “I absolutely hate when people come to work sick,” said redditor ReneeStone27 in a thread titled, Coworker came to work sick, now I’m sick. “It’s rude and I’m tired of catching whatever they have.”

    “I’d suggest you don’t think about ‘how sick you are’ but rather ask yourself ‘am I well enough to be at work’,” advised Polz34 in the “How sick is too sick to call out of work?” thread. “(I)f the answer is no then you shouldn’t be in work.”

    “Working while sick is a detriment your health and your coworkers’ health as well,” agreed TheMegatrizzle, adding a mea culpa by way of example. “I remember working while sick and we had to cancel team events and meetings because it spread to everyone and people kept getting sick.”

    But in another thread started by an employee who’d fallen ill three times from a colleague coming to work sick, some redditors said employers need do more to prevent those kinds of workplace infections from occurring. A top suggestion from redditors was for businesses to drop requirements for workers to obtain doctors’ notes justifying more than two days of sick leave.

    “No one should need a doctor’s note, we are all adults,” said eegrlN. “I’m certainly not going to the doctor for a cold or the flu.”

    “Most doctors I worked with despised notes,” added Anaxamenes. “They did it to help their patients, but they thought it was an incredible waste of everyone’s time and money.”

    Still other redditors had more direct responses to cases of sick coworkers threatening to spread their ailments to office colleagues.

    “Wear a mask,” advised erranttv.

    “Insist HE wears a mask, and tell him that he needs to stay FAR the f*** away!” retorted immanut_67, airing the same feelings that Zipfizz’s poll unearthed.

    Or, in these days when most workplaces still feature hybrid work arrangements, just ask people feeling lousy to work from home.

    Bruce Crumley

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