Introducing a Changed GLP-1 Landscape: Are You Ready to Reap the Benefits?

Allow me to make two introductions. The first is FlyteHealth. You may know us by our former name, Intellihealth, but our mission to help people live healthier lives hasn’t changed. The second introduction is to yours truly. Though I have likely met many HLTH blog readers over the course of my 25 year career in healthcare, I am new to the FlyteHealth team and I wanted to share why I chose to join this rapidly scaling organization as its new chief revenue officer. 

Over my two and a half decades in the industry, I’ve watched the healthcare ecosystem continue on an unhealthy trajectory. Shrinking access to primary care physicians (PCPs), the cost of medications (including GLP-1s), and the growing burden of chronic conditions all threaten our ability to deliver care efficiently to the people who need it the most. One of the most significant contributors to this healthcare crisis is obesity, which is why I’m so delighted to have joined the company that is setting a new standard for obesity management. 

Most of us realize that 42% of Americans are living with obesity, that obesity is the main cost driver of the top five chronic conditions, and that one-third of Americans have two or more conditions like pre-diabetes, diabetes, hypertension, depression, and orthopedic issues. What a lot of people don’t realize is just how many competitors are offering lifestyle management solutions to help reduce the impacts of these chronic conditions. And, in recent years, a handful of companies have challenged these competitors claiming that simply prescribing GLP-1s is the better route. The reality is that neither of these solutions by themselves is enough.

The only true way to help individuals living with obesity is to both prescribe medications (clinical management) while leveraging AI-based apps and connected devices to modify behavior over time (lifestyle management). That combined approach is what sets FlyteHealth apart from the competition including these highlights:

• We require labs and perform a full medical history in order to create personalized treatment plans. Because obesity and conditions like diabetes and hypertension are complex, heterogeneous diseases, a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective.  
• We provide each patient with connected devices including a digital scale, a blood pressure monitor, and a continuous glucose monitor (when appropriate) so each patient can monitor their progress and our patients’ PCPs can stay up to date. 
• We combine lifestyle management with appropriate prescribing of GLP-1 and non-GLP-1 medications. We work with our clients to optimize their existing formulary while being mindful of costs. In 2024, 60% of our patients will have been prescribed lower cost non-GLP-1 alternatives, helping save millions for our clients in the first year, and even more over the long term.
• Every patient works with a dedicated care team of in-house physicians and nurse practitioners who are trained in obesity medicine. This care team stays with the patient throughout their journey, from enrollment through weight loss to weight maintenance and chronic condition management, via ongoing virtual appointments. Importantly, we work with each patient’s existing PCP to ensure continuity of care and the highest level of chronic condition management.
• Our clinical care model is based on the work and research of Dr. Louis Aronne, a pioneer of obesity medicine. In addition to writing the protocols used by obesity physicians throughout the world, Dr. Aronne founded the American Board of Obesity Medicine and was the lead researcher on dozens of the studies that led to the medications currently on the market and changing lives. Each of our clinical care team members undergoes rigorous training on our proprietary, patented clinical approach to obesity management. 
• We leverage in-house dietitians and care coordinators who help our patients optimize their use of the FlyteHealth app to provide lifestyle modification tools like food and activity tracking, educational modules, and the ability to schedule appointments and communicate with their care team on a regular basis.

What this adds up to is optimal clinical outcomes for our patients and financial outcomes for our partners. At the time of this publication, a third party is using public claims data to analyze the performance of FlyteHealth for a large state-run health plan. Stay tuned for those results. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at what FlyteHealth has helped our client accomplish over the last 12 months:

• An average weight loss of 16.6%
• Blood pressure reduced 14%
• A1c reduced 7.14%
• Total cholesterol down 3.29%
• Costs for obesity medications, including GLP-1s, have levelled off after increasing 50% year over year every year since 2020
• NPS: 81

With this unique approach and the compelling outcomes our clinical model delivers, you can see why I joined FlyteHealth. My focus over the next several months will be sharing these results and the value FlyteHealth can bring organizations like yours. I look forward to connecting.