> **Prototype demonstration.** Fictional content, not current reporting. Placeholder sources are not evidence.

# Same A1C, same insurance, half the prescriptions

A review of 4.2 million prescriptions found Black patients with diabetes receive GLP-1 medication at 49% the rate of white patients with identical numbers.

The gap in who gets GLP-1 medication is not explained by insurance or by blood sugar, because researchers controlled for both.

A review of 4.2 million prescriptions found Black patients with diabetes received GLP-1 prescriptions at 49% the rate of white patients with identical A1C levels and identical coverage [per Capital B](https://capitalbnews.org/example/glp1-prescribing-gap). Same numbers, same plan, half the prescriptions.

That leaves the prescribing conversation itself. BlackDoctor.org asked physicians to walk through what a patient can do about it: the clinical criteria that qualify you, the paperwork that goes with the request, and the appeal process when a request is declined [per BlackDoctor.org](https://blackdoctor.org/example/glp1-how-to-ask).

Coverage is the second wall. Word In Black mapped state Medicaid programs and found twelve cover GLP-1s for diabetes with no prior authorization, eighteen require it, and six do not cover them at all [per Word In Black](https://wordinblack.com/example/glp1-medicaid-map).

What to do with this: if you have a diabetes diagnosis and have never been offered a GLP-1, that is a question worth asking directly at your next appointment, along with a request to note the answer in your chart. A documented decline is what an appeal is built on.