#259 - Healthcare HR News, October 2026: GLP-1 Coverage at 36%, Gen Z at 30% of RNs, Predicting Attrition

And speaking of that, story one is about one of my favorite topics here, all right? So it's the GLP-1 benefit decision healthcare HR can no longer defer.

Our sources from here are KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, the SHRM Benefits Benchmarking Report of twenty-twenty six, the Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans that was p-published this year as well.

So listeners, I wanna talk about a benefits decision that most H-healthcare HR leaders have been quietly putting off, and twenty twenty-seven is the year that that kinda stops being an option.

GLP-1 medications, so we're talking Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, the drugs that have reshaped the national conversation about weight and metabolic disease, one in eight American adults is now taking one.

One in eight.

That shocked me.

And as of this fall, only twenty-eight percent of health systems cover them as an employee benefit.

Here's why that employee numbers, uh, that n-- here's why that num-number matters, and it's gonna move fast.

The KFF survey that I mentioned, published last month, found that sixty-three percent of healthcare workers say employer coverage of GLP-1 medications would influence where they choose to work.

Not would be nice to have, would influence a job decision.

For a CHRO trying to compete on something other than base salary, that's a differentiator that's sitting right there.

The cost argument is real.

Coverage runs ten thousand to eighteen thousand dollars per employee per year at current list prices.

That's not nothing.

But here's what Mercer data shows.

Health systems that have implemented GLP-1 coverage for their workforce are reporting a twenty-two percent reduction in obes- in obesity-related sick days in the first twelve months.

When you run that against the cost of absenteeism, which for a health system averages around twenty-six hundred dollars per employee, the math starts to close faster than people expect.

The deeper issue, though, is this.

Healthcare workers have some of the highest rates of chronic metabolic disease of any profession category in the country.

They work odd hours.

They eat under stress.

They're on their feet or sedentary in ways that don't translate to healthy metabolic outcomes.

The system that employs them has both the clinical expertise and the pharmacy infrastructure to address that.

Most are choosing not to.

One other thing, and I talked about this, boys, when you were out in Savannah, but I wanna reiterate it 'cause I think it's important.

And speaking of that, story one is about one of my favorite topics here, all right? So it's the GLP-1 benefit decision healthcare HR can no longer defer.

Our sources from here are KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, the SHRM Benefits Benchmarking Report of twenty-twenty six, the Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans that was p-published this year as well.

So listeners, I wanna talk about a benefits decision that most H-healthcare HR leaders have been quietly putting off, and twenty twenty-seven is the year that that kinda stops being an option.

GLP-1 medications, so we're talking Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, the drugs that have reshaped the national conversation about weight and metabolic disease, one in eight American adults is now taking one.

One in eight.

That shocked me.

And as of this fall, only twenty-eight percent of health systems cover them as an employee benefit.

Here's why that employee numbers, uh, that n-- here's why that num-number matters, and it's gonna move fast.

The KFF survey that I mentioned, published last month, found that sixty-three percent of healthcare workers say employer coverage of GLP-1 medications would influence where they choose to work.

Not would be nice to have, would influence a job decision.

For a CHRO trying to compete on something other than base salary, that's a differentiator that's sitting right there.

The cost argument is real.

Coverage runs ten thousand to eighteen thousand dollars per employee per year at current list prices.

That's not nothing.

But here's what Mercer data shows.

Health systems that have implemented GLP-1 coverage for their workforce are reporting a twenty-two percent reduction in obes- in obesity-related sick days in the first twelve months.

When you run that against the cost of absenteeism, which for a health system averages around twenty-six hundred dollars per employee, the math starts to close faster than people expect.

The deeper issue, though, is this.

Healthcare workers have some of the highest rates of chronic metabolic disease of any profession category in the country.

They work odd hours.

They eat under stress.

They're on their feet or sedentary in ways that don't translate to healthy metabolic outcomes.

The system that employs them has both the clinical expertise and the pharmacy infrastructure to address that.

Most are choosing not to.

One other thing, and I talked about this, boys, when you were out in Savannah, but I wanna reiterate it 'cause I think it's important.