Step therapy
The vocabulary of getting a claim paid, of FDA enforcement, and of what on-label and off-label really mean.
Definition
The insurer requiring you to fail a cheaper or older drug first. For GLP-1s that usually means Contrave or Qsymia before Wegovy or Zepbound. A legitimate cost-control tool and, in practice, one of the biggest access barriers in the class.
GLP-1 insurance coverage: Medicare, Medicaid, commercial →
GLP Watchdog writes these definitions from FDA labels and peer-reviewed PubMed literature. Not one of them is an AI-generated summary.
Other terms under Insurance and regulatory
Where the evidence lives
- GLP-1 insurance coverage: Medicare, Medicaid, commercial
- The full GLP-1 glossary (149 terms, 8 categories)
- Research articles — written from primary sources
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- Compare GLP-1 telehealth providers