In July, Medicare launched an 18-month pilot called the Bridge program that lets some beneficiaries obtain GLP-1 obesity medications for $50 a month. Less than two months after the program began, major pharmacy chains report strong early demand: CVS and Walgreens each say they’ve filled roughly 100,000 Bridge prescriptions, and Walmart reports Bridge fills are increasing week to week across more than 5,000 of its pharmacies.
The Bridge program is a workaround to a legal restriction that generally prevents Medicare from covering weight-loss drugs. Under the pilot, Medicare will pay for these medicines only for beneficiaries who meet specified clinical criteria — for example, having obesity combined with high blood pressure that is difficult to control. People with sleep apnea or Type 2 diabetes are excluded from Bridge eligibility because Medicare Part D already covers GLP-1 drugs for those conditions.
Retailers prepared for the rollout by stocking additional supplies of branded GLP-1s such as Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo. Walgreens’ chief pharmacy officer Rick Gates told NPR that uptake has been higher than expected and that about half of the patients Walgreens has served through the program had never used GLP-1 medications before. He said pharmacists are stepping in to counsel patients, particularly to help them manage common early side effects like nausea and diarrhea so they don’t discontinue therapy.
CVS confirmed it had filled more than 100,000 Bridge prescriptions by mid-August and noted it also offers other cost-reducing options for people who don’t qualify for the pilot, including manufacturer coupons, vouchers and third-party discount cards. Walmart did not provide a precise prescription count but said Bridge prescriptions are growing week over week.
CMS did not supply a comprehensive participation count to reporters, but Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a July video post that about 250,000 beneficiaries had signed up for the program; it remains unclear how many of those had completed the required prior authorization and actually filled prescriptions.
Experts say the early pharmacy numbers suggest meaningful demand. Jeremy Shane, a nonresident scholar at the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government, noted Medicare had estimated about 4 million beneficiaries might meet the pilot’s eligibility criteria. If retail chains have filled several hundred thousand prescriptions already, that could represent roughly 5–10% of the potentially eligible population in a short time, Shane said.
The federal cost of the pilot is uncertain. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated the Bridge program could cost between $1.3 billion and $10 billion over its life, depending on participation rates; for scale, KFF notes Medicare Part D prescription drug spending was about $181 billion in 2025. Shane and other analysts emphasize that raw program cost is only part of the picture. They argue evaluations should consider long-term value: by improving health and preventing or delaying complications, wider access to GLP-1 therapies could reduce spending on costly downstream services like dialysis, hospitalizations and other care for chronic conditions.
Shane points to research suggesting expanded Medicare coverage of GLP-1 medications could improve health outcomes and potentially lower overall healthcare use over a decade. Policymakers and researchers will be watching the Bridge pilot closely to assess how many beneficiaries enroll, who benefits clinically, whether access can be sustained, and what the longer-term cost and value implications are for Medicare.
The Bridge program runs through the end of 2027, and its initial months appear to have generated substantial interest from senior patients and pharmacies alike. Officials, insurers and researchers will use data from the pilot to inform decisions about future coverage and program design.