On any given day, at least 25% of patients at the UT Internal Medicine Clinic qualify for weight loss injections. The drug is now so common that two-thirds of the clinic’s calls for insurance pre-approval involve the big three companies: Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound.
“We started asking patients to call their insurance company and ask if they would cover it, because all these things, like sending the insurance money and then having to request an appeal. Because we’re overwhelmed with what we do,” said Dr. Shelley Ost, an internist and university associate professor. from the University of Tennessee Medical School.
A class of drugs called GLP-1 acts like a naturally occurring hormone in the body that regulates blood sugar. This drug also slows the rate at which the stomach empties, regulating how quickly food is digested and absorbed.
They are so effective that in one trial, patients who took the highest doses of Wegoby, which is prescribed only for weight loss, lost 10 to 17 percent of their body weight within 18 months.
