CVS and Walgreens say they have filled about 100,000 prescriptions each in Medicare's GLP-1 Bridge program
Two chains report about 100,000 fills apiece in the first weeks of Medicare's $50 obesity drug pilot, which runs through 2027 and excludes people with sleep apnea or Type 2 diabetes.
Two of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains say they have each filled about 100,000 prescriptions through Medicare's new GLP-1 Bridge program in the weeks since it opened on July 1 [1]. The pilot lets qualifying beneficiaries buy obesity medication for a flat $50 a month [1].
Congress barred Medicare from covering weight-loss drugs, so the administration built a workaround: the program pays when a beneficiary meets conditions that include obesity together with blood pressure that is difficult to bring under control [1]. A diagnosis of sleep apnea or Type 2 diabetes rules a person out, on the reasoning that Medicare Part D should already be picking up the cost of a GLP-1 for those conditions [1]. The pilot is authorized to keep running through the end of 2027 [1].
Walgreens' chief pharmacy officer, Rick Gates, said stores around the country laid in extra Wegovy, the brand name for semaglutide; Zepbound, tirzepatide; and Foundayo, orforglipron, ahead of the launch. "I think there's been a little bit more uptake than we even expected," he said [1]. He said the chain has not run short of supply, and that roughly half of the Bridge patients it has served had never used a GLP-1 before [1]. Gates described nausea and diarrhea as early side effects pharmacists can help patients manage so they do not abandon treatment [1].
CVS put its total above 100,000 as of mid-August [1]. It also pointed to alternatives for people the program excludes, including third-party discount cards and manufacturer coupons and vouchers [1]. Walmart declined to give a figure; it said Bridge fills have risen every week and have been handled at more than 5,000 Walmart and Sam's Club locations [1].
Jeremy Shane, a nonresident scholar at the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service, said that if the two chains' combined 200,000 prescriptions are matched by possibly twice as many at other drugstores and pharmacies, the total would equal 5 percent to 10 percent of everyone eligible, reached in a short span [1]. Before launch, Medicare put the number of potentially qualifying beneficiaries at roughly 4 million [1].
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has not supplied NPR with usage figures [1]. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a July 29 video on X that 250,000 beneficiaries had enrolled, though it remains unclear how many of them cleared the prior authorization that must be approved before a Bridge prescription can be dispensed [1].
No one in the administration has disclosed a projected price tag for the 18-month pilot [1]. KFF, a nonpartisan health research group, puts the possible range at $1.3 billion to $10 billion depending on participation, compared with $181 billion in Medicare Part D drug spending in 2025 [1]. Shane argued that the cost frame misses the point: "The value for Medicare is how can we stop or slow or prevent the progression of disease?" [1] A paper by his USC colleagues found that widening Medicare's GLP-1 coverage over a decade could lower health care spending and raise quality of life [1].
Why it matters for patients
For a beneficiary who qualifies, the Bridge program fixes the monthly cost at $50 rather than whatever a Part D plan or a cash price would be [1]. The rules are tighter than the pool of people with obesity: sleep apnea or Type 2 diabetes disqualifies an applicant, so some patients with serious weight-related illness fall outside the pilot [1]. Enrollment is not the same as treatment, either. A prior authorization has to be approved before a pharmacy can fill the prescription, and how many of the sign-ups Oz cited cleared that step has not been reported [1].
Walgreens' experience hints that many participants are new to this drug class and may be encountering side effects for the first time; Gates pointed to pharmacists as a source of help with that [1]. People the program excludes are not necessarily without options: CVS said it accepts third-party discount cards and manufacturer coupons and vouchers [1].
What happens next
The pilot is scheduled to run through the end of 2027 [1]. CMS has not published its own enrollment or fill counts, leaving the chains' figures as the most detailed public measure of demand [1]. A federal estimate of the program's total cost has not been disclosed [1].
Sources
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