Question 1

How do I verify a provider's clinical license?

Accepted Answer

Open the provider's detail page and read the ClinicianLicensesSection end to end. It lists the issuing state, license number, the public board URL we matched it against, the date we verified it, and the date it expires. A row with no license number, a board URL that 404s, or an expiresAt in the past is not a Verified card — it is one of two red flags we surface on /results, and the provider will be sorted below the clean rows on purpose.

Question 2

How do I check the pharmacy's compounding status — 503A vs 503B vs brand?

Accepted Answer

The compounding story has three branches and they cannot be lumped together. 503A means a state-licensed pharmacy compounding a preparation patient-specific to your prescription. 503B means an outsourcing facility operating under FDA cGMP, producing batch-level medication that is only legally available after the FDA declared the shortage resolved and only under the post-shortage rule. Brand means FDA-approved Wegovy, Ozempic, or Mounjaro dispensed as labelled. Each provider row on /results carries a `MedicationBadge` whose colour maps to its `ProviderClassification`, so the facility kind is one glance, not a footnote.

Question 3

What does a subscription trap look like?

Accepted Answer

A trap usually has three tells. First, a low teaser headline paired with an auto-recurring membership plus consult that does not appear in the same line. Second, an out-of-band cancellation flow — no in-app cancel, phone-only, or a "refill-stage cancellation" that only unsticks after the next charge has posted and you ask for a chargeback. Third, a clinical encounter ordered after the charge so the consult line item becomes non-refundable on day one. /results places any row carrying an "Opaque pricing" or "Unverified clinician" flag below the Verified cards on purpose, so a bumpy provider is not ranked next to a clean one.

Question 4

Why can a low headline price hide the real monthly cost?

Accepted Answer

The headline is almost always the first-month consult, not the steady state. The real monthly figure is the sum of five lines: consult, membership, labs (a one-time line, billed separately on purpose), medication, and shipping. A first-month teaser that quotes consult alone and then swings to consult plus membership plus medication plus shipping on month two is not a discount — it is the back half of the same billing cycle. The /results total is built line-by-line from each provider's stated price sheet, and you can drill into any provider to see all five lines itemized.

Question 5

What does brand-name vs. compounded actually mean?

Accepted Answer

Brand-name means FDA-approved medication — Wegovy, Ozempic, or Mounjaro — dispensed under its labelled indication. Compounded 503A is a patient-specific preparation from a state-licensed pharmacy and is not interchangeable with the brand, even when the active ingredient matches. Compounded 503B is a batch-level preparation made under FDA cGMP at an outsourcing facility and is only available after the FDA declared the shortage resolved and under the post-shortage rule. Each provider row on /results carries a `MedicationBadge` that maps to the provider's `ProviderClassification`, so the badge legend and the provider's row tell the same story.

Five questions GLP-1 telehealth buyers ask before they pick a provider.

How do I verify a provider's clinical license?

How do I check the pharmacy's compounding status — 503A vs 503B vs brand?

What does a subscription trap look like?

Why can a low headline price hide the real monthly cost?

What does brand-name vs. compounded actually mean?