Find the cost of the whole plan.

Keep the care fee and drug bill separate

A small sample of online weight-loss services advertised a monthly care fee, with medicine charged separately, as of September 2026.

The price shown most prominently may be a discount for the first month or for paying several months ahead.

Read the limits on a low opening price

Self-pay means paying outside insurance.

$199 per month was an opening self-pay offer for semaglutide (Ozempic), checked in September 2026.

The offer was for new U.S. patients aged 18 or older, for the first two one-month supplies.

Strength means the amount of drug in a dose; the label shows it in milligrams (mg).

The opening price covered just 0.25 mg strength and 0.5 mg strength.

For later one-month supplies, the September 2026 price was $349. This covered 0.25 mg strength, 0.5 mg strength, and 1 mg strength.

The price was $499 per month at 2 mg under those terms.

The offer’s printed end date is December 31, 2026.

Under the offer’s rules, you could not ask insurance to pay you back.

The payments also could not count toward an insurance deductible.

The plan’s deductible is the sum you pay before it begins sharing covered costs.

Ask insurance about the reason for treatment

As of September 2026, Medicare Part D, its prescription-drug benefit, excluded drugs used for weight loss.

Medicare Part D may pay for the same drug for another accepted health condition, including type 2 diabetes or certain heart risks.

Your plan still decides whether it will pay and may need to agree before treatment starts.

A plan’s agreement to pay before treatment starts is called prior authorization.

Medicare’s temporary program is separate

As of September 2026, people who qualified for a temporary Medicare program paid $50 for a one-month supply of certain weight-loss drugs.

This patient payment is called a copay.

Mark the program’s two dates: July 1, 2026 for its start; December 31, 2027 for its end.

Its drug payments are separate from the usual Medicare Part D insurance payments.

The $50 payment did not count toward Medicare Part D’s annual limit for your spending on covered drugs, under the September 2026 terms.

These payments are extra and do not bring you closer to reaching that Part D limit.

Under the September 2026 rules, you had to be at least 18 and meet limits based on your height, weight, and health conditions.

Your type of drug plan and its past payments for these drugs also affected whether you could join.

This temporary program excluded people with type 2 diabetes; their medicine remained under the usual Part D plan.

Anyone whose Part D plan had paid for a drug included in this program during 2026 could not join that year.

Ask the health professional who writes your prescriptions and your plan to check all the rules in Note C.

Check who can use a savings offer

As of September 2026, commercial insurance was required for copay cards covering semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound).

Commercial insurance means a private health plan, such as coverage from work.

They excluded Medicare, Medicaid, and military coverage.

Separate offers from drug makers for paying without insurance could have different rules.

Ask whether an offer is tied to insurance or is a price for paying cash.