Among temporary and structural cost pressures, one stands out.

This year, employers and health plans are facing the steepest increase in health care costs in more than a decade. A perfect storm of temporary and structural factors is driving a projected 8.5–10% cost increase, with no relief expected soon.1

While deferred COVID-era care has increased utilization and provider consolidation continues to inflate prices, the most powerful force pushing costs higher is the collision of groundbreaking innovation, complex populations, and fragmented care delivery.2,3

Innovation is advancing care, but at a growing cost.

Not since the introduction of antibiotics, chemotherapy, and statins has pharmaceutical and biotech innovation been as transformative as today’s GLP-1 based pharmacotherapies and biologics such as gene therapies. These therapies are redefining what’s possible for people managing a growing list of common conditions like obesity, cardio-renal-metabolic disease, autoimmune disease, and more.4

Unlike prior waves of discovery, today’s breakthrough medications combine exceptionally high price points, long-duration or lifetime use, and an unprecedented consumer willingness to pay out of pocket. The result is sustained upward pressure on costs.

In 2025, pharmacy spending accounted for 24% of every health care dollar. The cost of specialty medications, which make up roughly half of that spending, is growing 10–12% per year.5 This is far outpacing overall medical trends.

Against the backdrop of a growing multi-chronic population and increasingly fragmented care, these medical breakthroughs further amplify health care costs.

Complexity and fragmentation muddy the value of innovation.

More than half of U.S. adults aged 35–64 report having two or more chronic conditions. Among young adults, the prevalence of multiple chronic conditions rose nearly 25% in the last decade, while the number of older adults with multiple chronic conditions is projected to nearly double by 2050.6,7 This pattern reflects a widening gap between lifespan and healthspan, as people live longer but spend more years managing chronic disease—adding duration and complexity to care and pushing costs higher.8

Rates of obesity, cancer, inflammatory immune conditions (such as psoriasis, eczema, and irritable bowel syndrome), mental health conditions, and other chronic diseases rise and increasingly occur together.9 Many individuals with several chronic conditions receive numerous medications and may also be eligible for breakthrough therapies.

For example, more than 80% of people with diabetes meet the criteria for GLP-1 treatment, and a diagnosis of an immune-related inflammatory condition often leads to treatment with an expensive biologic requiring regular infusions.10

Meanwhile, conditions are often treated in silos across primary care, specialty care, mental health services, obesity programs, and other chronic care settings.11 Individuals commonly take prescriptions from multiple providers, along with over-the-counter medications. And supplement use has become more popular than ever and largely unsupervised.12 Many people also attempt self-directed care, particularly with new anti-obesity medications.13

“Skyrocketing GLP-1 use from non-traditional provider settings and people juggling multiple conditions reveals a larger problem: limited visibility into all the medications people use,” says Leslie Helou, Senior Vice President of Health Outcomes at MOBE. “This further complicates care and increases the potential for poor adherence, redundant treatments, and avoidable escalation that can limit the potential for positive outcomes.”

The overall result is a self-reinforcing loop. As more people manage multiple chronic conditions, their conditions are treated in isolation, medications are prescribed without coordinated oversight, and safety risks of inappropriate and mismanaged medication use increase. These clinical and financial complications perpetuate rising costs and poorer health outcomes.

This makes it difficult for health plans and employers to fully capture the value of even the most promising therapies. Adherence to common medications is often low, and long-term self-care is a persistent challenge—so it’s no surprise that even these remarkable innovations may fall short of their promise, until now.

Leverage the intersection between a human-led, cross-condition clinical program and digital health solution.

An individual may have diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and depression, and be prescribed multiple common and specialty medications for each condition. They may also self-medicate with a range of over-the-counter drugs, herbals, and supplements for everyday issues like headaches, pain, allergies, and more. Side effects, dangerous interactions, poor adherence, eventual discontinuation, and dissatisfaction due to polypharmacy are common experiences. 

Relying on single-condition solutions to fill the gaps of fragmented traditional providers is unsustainable and has been unsuccessful. It’s led to wasted spending and worse health outcomes. This moment demands a model designed to match the complexity it seeks to manage. An integrated, whole-person approach that combines human-led clinical care with digital multi-condition and polypharmacy support meets that challenge.

MOBE Guides and Pharmacists work in tandem and connect with participants to provide behavior change support rooted in lifestyle guidance and comprehensive medication management, while forming deep, human-to-human relationships.

Prescription data and medical diagnoses alone are not enough to determine what is needed to improve the health of complex individuals. “At MOBE, we’ve found that nearly half of Pharmacist recommendations involve alternatively sourced, non-prescription medications and supplements. These gaps in care aren’t identifiable from data analysis alone,” Helou says.

MOBE Missions, MOBE’s robust digital experience powered by Sidekick Health, supports multiple overlapping conditions by providing evidence-based and personalized action plans, daily guidance, self-care skill building, and clinical tracking between human connections. Research shows digital interventions extend the impact of human-led care by reducing care escalations, improving adherence, and lowering downstream spending across a range of conditions. For example:

• Heart failure: Enhanced condition knowledge and self-care behaviors14
• Type 2 diabetes: Reduced HbA1c and diabetes distress15
• Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: Reduced liver fat and cardiovascular risk markers16
• Cancer: Reduced symptom burden and improved quality of life17

“Chronic conditions demand sustained self-care to prevent costly disease progression and enhance quality of life. Yet fragmented care and disconnected digital health solutions place an unreasonable burden on patients, making it far harder to manage polypharmacy and incorporate lifestyle changes that drive meaningful health gains.” says Dr. Andy Grannell, PhD, Global Medical Affairs Lead at Sidekick Health. 

“[MOBE Missions] was built to support these exact patient needs by combining behavioral science, gamification, and evidence-based interventions to create a world-class user experience.”

Pairing a trusted human relationship with condition-specific digital support for lifestyle and medication management across multiple conditions improves medication safety and strengthens provider care. The result is lasting behavior change and measurable outcomes, including reduced cost of care.

Bring clarity to complexity.                            

Health plans and employers face growing pressure to translate rising health care spending into better outcomes and lower total cost of care as health care innovation accelerates, populations become more complex, and care remains fragmented. Embracing integrated, human-led, digitally enhanced, cross-condition models will put them in a better position to improve outcomes, control costs, and meet the health needs of their people.

Explore how MOBE can help.