Why Choose Noom Health Over Your PBM’s Cardiometabolic Solution?

Helping your employees improve and sustain their cardiometabolic health is key to driving disease prevention, better health outcomes, and cost savings. The question is no longer “if” these solutions are valuable to improving population health, but rather which ones drive the strongest, most sustainable outcomes and cost savings. 

With various disease prevention and wellness programs already embedded in PBMs, it’s important for key decision makers not to overlook the proven value of investing in standalone holistic cardiometabolic solutions such as Noom.

The Problem With PBMs

While choosing a cardiometabolic solution already embedded in your PBM may sound like the most convenient and cost effective option for your population, the challenges posed by these solutions may result in less-than-optimal results. Here are a few watchouts. 

• Quick fixes deliver short-term change: Most preventive health, weight management, and disease management programs embedded in PBMs help people with the immediate goal, like lose 10 pounds. However, they fail to help people make sustainable lifestyle changes that prevent the onset of chronic disease because they neglect a crucial factor — behavior change. Without addressing the habits and patterns that underpin health, these programs miss an opportunity to prevent chronic conditions before they take root.
• Various vendors can lower engagement: PBM solutions are often a combination of various health and wellness vendors, each focused on a specific offering or condition. This fragmentation leads to administrative overhead and may result in disengagement as individuals are overwhelmed by choices and the burden of learning how to engage with each unique program or platform.
• Disrupted GLP-1 access results in poorer adherence and persistence: With minimal price transparency, misaligned incentives that create a conflict of interest, and delayed rebates that hinder cost savings, traditional PBM models can exacerbate GLP-1 costs, while stock shortages and delayed access can lead to poorer adherence, persistence, and results for your population.¹ 
• Lack of measurable outcomes lead to unclear ROI: Traditional PBM solutions generally focus too much on reactionary care and wait until the onset of an illness or symptom to provide intervention, which can lead to increasing rates of chronic disease and their related costs. 

The Noom Health Difference

Noom takes a revolutionary approach to cardiometabolic care, combining clinical support with proven psychology to help people lose weight and reduce health risks, while lowering your overall costs for your organization. Here’s what sets Noom apart from a PBM-embedded program: 

1. Proven behavior change support drives sustainable outcomes  

Noom focuses on driving sustainable health outcomes through psychology. Behavior change science is at the core of all of Noom’s comprehensive cardiometabolic programs, combining personalized coaching, clinical care, and data-driven insights to target the root causes of unhealthy behaviors and to provide your employees with the tools and support they need to change their habits for the long term, including strategies for healthy eating, guidance to reframe unhelpful thoughts, and support to manage stress. 

And it works. Noom members maintained 100% of weight loss in the 2 years following the completion of their 6 month program.²

2. One platform supports total population health

Noom Health is a single platform to help your entire population lower their health risks and improve outcomes. From diabetes prevention and management, to obesity care, weight management, and GLP-1s, Noom Health is designed to meet your population where they are while lowering your organization’s healthcare costs.

3. Strong brand recognition boosts adoption and engagement 

Standalone or not, cardiometabolic solutions can only work if your employees engage with them. Trusted by millions, Noom’s 50% brand recognition drives a 25% adoption rate, with 50% of monthly active users engaging daily.³ This, combined with personalized, scalable care, makes Noom Health a reliable partner in driving meaningful outcomes for your employees and your business. 

4. Less hassle improves outcomes for GLP-1 and AOM users 

While GLP-1s and anti-obesity medications (“AOMs”) are effective tools for weight management, their efficacy is significantly enhanced when paired with robust lifestyle interventions. Noom combines our proven behavior change approach and obesity care with evidence-based protocols and a structured approach to medication tapering to rightsize GLP-1 use and enhance overall outcomes. In fact, 1.4X more weight loss was reported when pairing Noom with an early GLP-1 vs. a GLP-1 alone.⁴

To further mitigate rising costs, Noom Med with Smart^Rx, our pharmacy carve-out solution, provides transparent, discounted pricing on GLP-1 medications for weight loss, with the flexibility to set custom copays separate from other covered medications. With Noom, organizations can balance access and affordability while improving the medication fulfillment experience, ultimately driving cost savings and better, sustainable health outcomes. 

5. Positive outcomes deliver positive ROI 

Noom Health’s revolutionary approach to cardiometabolic care helps people get ahead of unhealthy habits before they compound into a serious issue, resulting in a proven track record of delivered, measurable health improvements and cost savings. Noom’s weight loss program delivers 2x ROI for those with a 25 BMI score and above, while Noom Med delivers a projected 4.1x ROI over a three-year period.^5,6

Easy Integration, Proven Results 

Beyond driving sustainable health outcomes for your population and maximizing the value of your investment, Noom Health’s cardiometabolic solutions are easy to implement, too. Our programs fit effortlessly into any benefit structure and seamlessly integrate with your current platforms via a flexible approach that plugs into existing infrastructure. What’s more? No additional costs are associated with the implementation and integration process.

Look beyond your PBM’s solution – learn more about how Noom Health’s solutions can transform the health of your population and drive costs down for your organization. 

References: 

*https://peakheart.com/only-68-of-americans-are-in-optimal-cardiometabolic-health/. 

¹https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/pbms-pricing-and-policy-the-fight-for-fair-access-to-glp-1s

²Based upon third-party randomized control trial comparing outcomes of 302 Noom participants and 298 control arm participants with BMI > 27 for 30 months.

³Based on internal Noom data. 

⁴Based on a retrospective study of self-reported data of pounds lost for active versus passive users who were offered the Noom program when being prescribed an early stage GLP-1.

⁵Based on a study over 12 weeks of active U.S. Noom users with at least 25 BMI.

⁶Third-party validated actuarial analysis, October 2024. This projection is based on a comparison to a status quo scenario where GLP-1 medication spending is uncontrolled. ROI may vary based on factors such as company size, employee health profiles, and current healthcare cost.