THE FULL BILL

What will I pay?
Ask past the headline.

Get a written total for the start of care and the months that follow. Ask what changes when an offer ends.

A DATED PRICE EXAMPLE

Pill or shot: ask about the price and terms.

As of September 26, 2026, published cash prices for semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) ran from $149 to $499 per month.

That range covered pills and shots, with different amounts of the active medicine in each pill or shot.

For these prices, a month meant a bottle of 30 tablets, a box of four Wegovy pens or a box of one Ozempic pen.

The lowest shot offers for new patients covered their first two one-month supplies, under terms running through December 31, 2026.

Those terms give no promise about prices beyond that date.

Ask which price applies to each refill, including any after that date.

COMPARE THE SAME THINGS

Put each part of the bill on the page.

The medicine

What is the exact product? Is this an insurance payment or a cash price? How much medicine does the stated price cover?

The care

Is the visit charged on its own or through a membership? What is included between visits? What are the cancellation terms?

The extras

Are tests, shipping or supplies charged separately? What would you pay if the person checking your health decides against prescribing medicine?

The research used for this guide covered six services offering online weight care, checked on September 26, 2026. Five billed a membership fee each month and charged separately for medicine. Ask for a list of what that fee includes.

IF YOU HAVE INSURANCE

Ask about the exact drug and the reason for using it.

Ask your plan which products it covers, what you would owe, and whether it needs a review before it agrees to pay.

That review is called prior authorization. Ask who files the request and how a refusal would be handled.

The maker’s cash price is paid outside insurance; that spending adds nothing toward your deductible or your out-of-pocket maximum.

A deductible is an amount you pay before some plan benefits begin. An out-of-pocket maximum is a plan’s yearly limit on your share of covered care.

THE MEDICARE ROUTES

A temporary program has its own rules.

Medicare’s usual drug benefit excluded medicines taken solely to lose weight, as of September 26, 2026.

The same medicine could qualify for Medicare’s usual drug benefit when used to treat type 2 diabetes.

Another eligible use was lowering heart attack or stroke risk in adults with heart disease and obesity or excess weight.

The plan still decides whether to cover the medicine and what approval it needs.

As of September 26, 2026, a monthly medicine supply cost $50 through the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, a temporary weight-loss program for eligible people with Medicare drug coverage.

The program’s listed dates were a July 1, 2026 start and a December 31, 2027 end.

It included semaglutide (Wegovy) tablets and injections, but not semaglutide (Ozempic) for weight loss.

The Bridge rules checked September 26, 2026 required age 18 or older; they listed no upper age limit.

A health professional allowed to order medicine is known as a prescriber.

Being older does not settle the question. Ask the prescriber to work out your body mass index (BMI), the number based on height and weight used in these rules.

The health tests below apply to your health when treatment with this kind of medicine began.

A BMI of 35 or more.
Or a BMI of 30 or more, with one of the following health problems.
The listed problems are heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, meaning the heart keeps its squeezing strength; uncontrolled high blood pressure; or kidney disease at stage 3a or a later stage.

For the blood-pressure test, the top reading must exceed 140 or the bottom reading must exceed 90 despite taking two blood-pressure medicines.
Or a BMI of at least 27, plus one of these: artery disease that causes symptoms; a stroke or heart attack in your past; or blood sugar higher than normal but short of diabetes. Ask whether any artery disease in your records is the kind the program calls peripheral artery disease.

Drug coverage is required through a separate Medicare Part D plan or, if using Medicare Advantage, a coordinated care plan that provides the drug benefit.

Ask your plan to confirm whether it falls into either of those groups. Ask the prescriber to check the full rules and the names of any health problems in your records.

A prescription and prior authorization, approval before the program pays, are required, along with ongoing help with food choices and physical activity.

People with type 2 diabetes cannot use the Bridge, since Medicare’s usual drug benefit can pay for medicine prescribed to treat that condition.

Other exclusions include moderate or severe sleep apnea, meaning repeated pauses in breathing during sleep, and a certain liver disease called MASH with moderate or advanced scarring.

For 2026, the Bridge also excludes someone whose Part D plan already paid for a medicine of this type during that year.

Ask the prescriber which route applies before counting on that price.

Read Medicare’s eligibility information

NEXT QUESTIONWhat needs checking before I commit?

THE SOURCE NOTES