Globe and Mail reports Manulife is ‘steering’ patients on Wegovy and Mounjaro to fill prescriptions at Shoppers Drug Mart

Manulife patients using popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro are being steered towards filling prescriptions at Shoppers Drug Mart, according to reporting from the Globe and Mail. According to the Globe, which spoke with pharmacists and patients, Manulife rejected insurance claims on GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy until patients spoke to a representative at Shoppers Drug Mart, who then encourage the patient to fill their prescriptions at a Loblaw-owned pharmacy. In some cases, patients felt like they had no other choice if they wanted their Manulife-provided insurance to cover the cost of the drug or face a length process to use a different pharmacy. This comes just one year after Manulife cancelled a similar "preferred provider" agreement with Loblaw, which brought criticism from patients, healthcare providers and politicians. Preferred provider networks, or PPNs, have since come under scrutiny from regulators—and have been the subject of two Ontario government pubic consultations. This change comes after the insurer removed Wegovy from its DrugWatch program, a list of drugs that are considered high cost to an insurance policy. For many, Wegovy wasn't covered under their Manulife insurance. Other insurance providers like GreenShield Canada have also moved to reimburse Wegovy and other similar drugs only if they are bought at in-network pharmacies. Greenshield Canada told the Globe and Mail in August that it had done so because the popularity of GLP-1 drugs have made it expensive for plans. This new policy is part of an arrangement Manulife, Canada's largest insurer, made with Shoppers to run its specialty drug care plan for these popular GLP-1 drugs. In a statement sent to the Globe and Mail, Manulife spokesperson Emily Vear says that patients on these drugs need to "opt in or opt out" of the program with Shoppers and says that buying medication from Shoppers is still "voluntary." A spokesperson for Loblaw wrote in a statement for the Globe that this arrangement between the insurer and pharmacy corporation is "not a PPN" because patients don't have to fill their prescriptions at Shoppers. "They can fill their prescription at any pharmacy they choose, and this is not exclusive to any one insurer," the spokesperson wrote.However, PPNs aren't always mandatory—often, they simply direct patients towards certain pharmacies or providers, a practice sometimes called "patient steering," which has come under fire from advocates. "It's just hurdles and a lack of clarity for patients," says Ian Patton, director of advocacy and public engagement at Obesity Canada in the Globe and Mail piece.

Globe and Mail reports Manulife is ‘steering’ patients on Wegovy and Mounjaro to fill prescriptions at Shoppers Drug Mart

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