An increasingly common medical-management issue in workers’ compensation cases arises when treatment of an accepted injury reaches an obstacle that is not the accepted condition itself. An authorized surgeon recommends a knee replacement or other procedure but will not proceed until the injured worker loses weight, lowers a body-mass index, improves an A1C level, or satisfies another preoperative target. A second provider then prescribes Wegovy, Zepbound, or another GLP-1 medication. The question is whether that prescription is sufficiently connected to the compensable injury and proposed surgery to fall within the employer and insurer’s medical responsibility. 

In January, the Workers Compensation Research Institute published a 28-state study examining these weight-loss therapies in workers’ compensation, including GLP-1 medications used to manage obesity as a comorbidity that can affect recovery...

Read the full article on WorkersCompensation.com here. The WCRI study is Injectable Therapies in Workers’ Compensation.  Visit its page on our website for more information, including details on how to get a copy!