Louisiana Medicaid and GLP-1s
Louisiana asks for something no other state on this site asks for: a treatment agreement, completed and filed with the request, before anything is dispensed. On top of that the Wegovy pathway starts at 45 rather than 18, and if the BMI is 35 or higher the state wants to see that you were at least assessed for surgery first.
What changed, and what the document says
The paperwork before the drug
Conditions applyA separate signed document, named in the criteria, submitted alongside the authorization request.
“For initiation of therapy requests, the Tirzepatide (Zepbound®) Treatment Agreement for Louisiana Medicaid Recipients must be completed as instructed and submitted with the request form.”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created June 2025, implementation date January 2026
Wegovy starts at 45
Not coveredNot 18, and not the label's floor. Forty-five is the age this pathway opens at.
“The recipient is 45 years of age or older on the date of the request; AND”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created April 2024, implemented July 2024; revised September 2024, implemented October 2024; revised November 2025, implemented March 2026
A BMI window, not a floor
Conditions applyBetween 27 and 35 you qualify on the number alone. Above 35 the state adds a step.
“The recipient has a documented Body Mass Index (BMI) of ≥ 27 kg/m2 and < 35 kg/m2;”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created April 2024, implemented July 2024; revised September 2024, implemented October 2024; revised November 2025, implemented March 2026
Surgery gets assessed first
Not coveredThe heavier you are, the more Louisiana wants to know you looked at an operation before a prescription.
“The recipient has a documented BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2, and documentation of evaluation or referral for bariatric surgery is provided with the request”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created April 2024, implemented July 2024; revised September 2024, implemented October 2024; revised November 2025, implemented March 2026
Zepbound's threshold
Conditions applyA sleep study, a number, and a twelve-month recency window on the test itself.
“The patient has an established diagnosis of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of ≥ 15 on polysomnography (PSG) within the previous 12 months (Documentation is required showing test results with corresponding date); AND”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created June 2025, implementation date January 2026
Non-adherence to CPAP counts in the patient's favor
ContextAn unusual clause: not sticking with the machine is one of the two ways to satisfy this criterion.
“The recipient has a history of non-adherence to PAP therapy; AND”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created June 2025, implementation date January 2026
Two chances at 5 percent
Not coveredMiss the target once and you get three months with a written reason. Miss it twice and the criteria stop.
“For weight loss < 5%, do not approve.”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created June 2025, implementation date January 2026
Six months to prove it
Conditions applyThat's the initiation window on the sleep-apnea route before anything is reassessed.
“Duration of approval for initiation of therapy: 6 months”
Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid — Policy created June 2025, implementation date January 2026
Which of these companies serve Louisiana?
Of the 159 companies we grade, 19 publish a list of the states they are licensed in. We checked 137 more and found no such list on any page we read; 3 we have not checked either way.
8 of those lists name Louisiana: Gala Health, Care Bare Rx, Vita Bella, TelePeptide, WePeptideRx, Ways2Well, TeleClinic and Tyde Wellness. That is a licensure claim each company makes about itself, not something we checked with a state board.
A published list is a starting point, not a guarantee. If availability decides your choice, ask before you pay and get the answer in writing.
Sources
Each document below was fetched and read on the date shown beside it, which is the date printed on the document — not always the date in its web address. All of them were read in September 2026, the same session as the rest of this page.
- Louisiana Medicaid — Tirzepatide (Zepbound®) — Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid. the single row of the "Revision / Date" and "Implementation Date" table on the last page — the URL path reads 9_26_25 and the filename reads 06052025, and neither is this document's date: Policy created June 2025, implementation date January 2026.
- Louisiana Medicaid — Semaglutide (Wegovy®) — Louisiana Department of Health, Louisiana Medicaid. the whole "Revision / Date" and "Implementation Date" table on the last page, reproduced as the list it is: Policy created April 2024, implemented July 2024; revised September 2024, implemented October 2024; revised November 2025, implemented March 2026.
Nothing on this page is medical advice, and nobody here is a clinician. Coverage rules change; check the linked document before you rely on it.
If you're paying cash instead
None of the above changes what a telehealth seller charges you. None of the 3 rows below carries both a medication price and a monthly fee we could capture, so no figure here is a sum. Each cell says what its number covers and what we could not confirm, and every number was read on the seller's own page.
PlushCare, Form Health and Signos pay us nothing — none of the 3 below does. The buttons run through our own redirect so we can count the click, and counting is all they do.
| Grade | Provider | What a month actually costs | The one thing that matters here | Go to the provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMinor gap | PlushCare | No month-to-month medication price we could capture, so there is no monthly total to show.What they do bill every month: $19.99 a month for membership.Charged per visit rather than every month, so it is not in the figure above: $129 for visit, no insurance.The review says what else we found. | Puts both halves of its price in one panel — $19.99 a month plus a $129 first visit — and states that medication isn't included. It prescribes; it doesn't sell the drug. | See its prices at PlushCare (opens in a new tab)Pays us nothing |
| CCaveat | Form Health | No month-to-month medication price we could capture, so there is no monthly total to show.What they do bill every month: $299 a month for membership.The review says what else we found. | An insurance-first obesity clinic with no pricing page in its navigation at all. Its one cash figure is $299 a month, and that excludes the drug, the labs and any copay. | See its prices at Form Health (opens in a new tab)Pays us nothing |
| CCaveat | Signos | $199a month, medication onlycompounded GLP-1 with CGMMedication only. We captured no separate monthly charge on the pages we read, which is what we found rather than proof that nothing else is billed.The only figure published for this plan, and it is worded as a floor. | Prices its glucose-monitor program on a real ladder and its GLP-1 plan on a single starting-at figure of $199. We walked the intake seven steps and the plan price never appeared. | See its prices at Signos (opens in a new tab)Pays us nothing |
Our grading method and how we verify a price explain what those letters mean and where these figures came from.