Ascension Wisconsin, Cleveland Clinic Detail GLP-1 Bridge Rollouts
In a Becker's Hospital Review report on a panel at Becker's Fall Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit, Ascension Wisconsin's Chris Weber, MD, and Cleveland Clinic's Diana Isaacs, PharmD, described how their systems have managed the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program since it launched July 1. Cleveland Clinic centralized prior authorizations under pharmacy, built EHR smart sets with titration schedules and eligibility criteria, and defaults prescriptions to its own home-delivery pharmacy. Ascension Wisconsin's centralized prior-authorization effort at small clinics generated enough volume that the system shut it off after two weeks and hired two more staff, with most prescriptions still routed to outside pharmacies where individual clinics handle prior authorizations. Both said the eligibility criteria generate more clinician questions than expected, and the program is set to end December 31, 2027.