Waltz Health, a digital health company developing smarter, technology-enabled ways to price, distribute and prescribe medications and Noom, the leading digital healthcare company committed to chronic disease prevention and empowering people to live better longer, today announced a unique collaboration that will bring employers, and health plans a comprehensive and more affordable weight loss program.
Leveraging Waltz Connect by Waltz Health, the two industry leaders together are engineering a joint solution that will provide an end-to-end program that helps employees more seamlessly access and manage their GLP-1 prescription journey. Waltz Connect is an end-to-end solution that manages all aspects of an organization’s specialty medication coverage. It includes proprietary technology, patient engagement support, and a first-of-its-kind dynamic marketplace with a network of high-quality specialty pharmacies that compete on price, service levels, and clinical outcomes.
“With GLP-1 medications often priced beyond reach for many, our collaboration with Waltz Health offers a much-needed solution to make these life-changing drugs more accessible and affordable,” said Geoff Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Noom. “In the U.S., the cost disparity of weight loss drugs compared to other countries has left many employers unable to justify coverage. It’s simply out of reach. By leveraging Waltz Connect’s technology, we’re tackling these inflated prices head-on, ensuring that employers can offer their employees a path to effective weight loss that is both transparent and cost-efficient. Together, we are redefining access to care for a condition that affects millions of people with a first-of-its-kind solution, Noom Med with SmartRx.”
The joint employer solution will be part of Noom Med, a clinical obesity management solution that combines evidence-based obesity care with an award-winning 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 seamlessly support the patient with access to their prescribed medication, including dispensing and application of all available discounts for a market-leading lower price. Employees can see their price in advance in the Noom app before proceeding. This will result in unprecedented price transparency for employees, which will result in a better medication fulfillment experience while also saving their employer more money.
“GLP-1 drugs have been a game-changer in the health and wellness space, but supply chain challenges and affordability issues have created broken experiences for many while wholly eliminating access for others. However, we know that there are opportunities to eliminate friction and find savings within the system by intelligently routing prescriptions using AI to uncover the best pharmacy option,” said Waltz Health Co-founder and CEO Mark Thierer. “People shouldn’t have to spend their time searching for pharmacies that have medications in stock or who have the best price. By combining Noom’s personalized, behavior science-driven program with our Waltz Connect platform, we’re ensuring employees both have access to more affordable medications and understand when and how to expect their prescriptions.”
Launched in August, Waltz Connect provides unmatched transparency by unlocking competition among specialty pharmacies and is engineered to reduce specialty costs, improve member experience and deliver better member health outcomes. Its flexible design allows it to be deployed across entire specialty-drug formularies, on specific drug classes like GLP-1s, or even down to individual drugs. The solution is built on Waltz Health’s Intelligent Specialty Engine, which is an AI-enabled prescription routing software that intuitively 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 caused a staggering $425.5 billion to U.S. businesses and employees. While GLP-1 drugs have been shown to be a very effective treatment for obesity and associated cardiovascular issues, they can be cost-prohibitive for many people and their employees.
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