Obesity is one of America’s biggest health issues. Despite the connection between weight and other health concerns, obesity has, historically, been seen as nothing more than a cosmetic concern, leaving many patients with little support when it comes to improving overall health.
Henry Meds is one healthcare service that has taken steps to treat weight management like any other chronic health issue. Having grown the organization from one office to serving patients in 30 states in only two years, Henry Meds owes its success to one thing: prioritizing its patients’—and providers’—experience.
Read on to learn how Henry Meds is improving the healthcare experience with their virtual healthcare offerings.
Henry Meds’ vision
If you could make a few medications more accessible to Americans, which would you choose?
This is a question that Henry Meds asked themselves before founding their virtual services. For Henry Meds, the answer was helping Americans address metabolic syndrome, which can result in conditions that increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
So, Henry Meds began offering treatments for endocrine-related conditions. Today, they work with patients to manage insomnia, testosterone levels, and weight—with their greatest success coming from compounded GLP-1s.
Why Henry Meds prescribes GLP-1s
GLP-1s are a group of medications being used to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes by increasing insulin release, delaying digestion, and suppressing appetite—helping to reduce body weight on average by 15%.
While GLP-1s have been revolutionary for many struggling with weight loss, these medications can also be hard to access due to a lack of supply and high costs.
That’s because most insurance companies don’t cover weight loss treatments, forcing patients to pay out of pocket for medications. With the cost of weight loss treatment potentially being over $1,000 per month, paying for these medications is no small task.
Still, a 2021 study showed that obesity can cause an average increase of $1,861 in annual medical costs, which only underlines the need for effective weight management treatments like GLP-1s.
Improving accessibility
These are some of the ways Henry Meds has designed their telehealth-only, subscription-based model around patient needs:
- All visits are done over telehealth
- Patients have a high level of support
- Prescriptions are mailed directly to patients from licensed pharmacies
- Their prescription supply is stable
- Medications and care are affordable
- Pricing is transparent and easy to understand
Sounds pretty great, right? So, how exactly has Henry Meds been able to check all these boxes?
Telehealth-only visits
Since all visits are done over telehealth, patients can get the prescriptions they need without taking off work or worrying about transportation. If patients need blood work done, Henry Meds partners with at-home lab providers to make collecting samples possible from the comfort of one’s home.
Patient support
Henry Meds is known for great patient support—both during and between visits. During appointments, “our providers have a really good continuity of care,” says Dr. Steven Peacock, Chief Medical Officer at Henry Meds. “They're developing a strong relationship by seeing the same patient over and over again.”
Between appointments, live, over-the-phone support is given six days a week. “We prefer a patient call in, and then we can connect them with a provider,” said Dr. Peacock. “That gives patients a high degree of care while delegating work away from providers.”
Convenient ways to get medications
Waiting in long lines is never fun. Neither is waiting for days for your prescriptions to be filled—if the store is even open at all. This is the reality of a nationwide pharmacist staffing shortage.
That’s why pharmacies in the Henry Meds network mail out all their prescriptions with lead times for delivery. This ensures that patients don’t miss a dosage simply because they’re avoiding the inevitable line at the pharmacy or facing potential health risks by waiting days for their medications.
When asked why they chose to use a mail order for prescriptions, Dr. Peacock said, “It's just the best experience we can give our patients.”
Affordable prescriptions (that aren’t in short supply)
Ozempic may be popular with celebrities, but as we mentioned earlier, the general population can’t afford to be on a medication that can cost around $1,000. Medications that have been on the market longer are slightly more affordable, but insurance doesn’t always cover GLP-1 medications when used for weight loss.
Henry Meds took insurance completely out of the equation and instead looked at ways to make this medication more affordable. By prescribing compounded medications, their GLP-1 weight management program starts at only $297 per month—and that includes both telehealth visits and prescriptions.
Plus, by using compounding pharmacies, patients don’t run the risk of being unable to fulfill a prescription because of limited supply.
Note: Click here to learn more about the risks and benefits of compounding pharmacies.
Straightforward pricing
Because there’s a standard monthly price, patients know the cost from the start. With no surprises, patients may be more likely to stick with their medications, which is important since GLP-1s work best over an extended period or indefinitely.
Patients want convenient, accessible care
Because Henry Meds doesn’t work with insurance companies and uses compounded medications, they can offer obesity prescriptions at flat monthly rates for a fraction of the cost. This gives them the ability to serve both insured and uninsured patient populations who are ready to improve their health.
“Oftentimes, you can visually just see that there's a change, which is amazing and so rewarding for both the patient and the provider,” said Dr. Peacock.
With Henry Meds’ explosive growth, Peacock attributes that directly to patients, and providers, appreciating this human-centric healthcare option.
Providers benefit from this virtual care model
Not surprisingly, providers have also found this healthcare model rewarding.
“Adopting a telehealth-only model gives both our patients and providers a level of convenience and flexibility by being efficient and low-stress,” Dr. Peacock explained. “This makes a world of difference. We have not had one provider leave Henry Meds.”
The American Medical Association’s 2022 National Burnout Benchmarking report showed that just over half of physicians surveyed were experiencing burnout. Physician burnout may be common, but with zero provider turnover, Henry Meds seems to be an exception.
Eliminating administrative burden
Working in telehealth has its own benefits. But Henry Meds has taken extra steps to make sure providers aren’t getting bogged down with paperwork or other tasks. One way they’ve done this is (yet again) through their payment model.
How you can get started with human-centric telehealth
In the book Telehealth Success: How to Thrive in the New Age of Remote Care, the authors describe how direct-to-consumer models like Henry Meds can thrive with telehealth. Check out the book to learn how technology-driven practices can improve efficiency and help providers focus on building the provider-patient relationship.
Interested in learning more about the features Henry Meds uses? Click here to learn more about Doxy.me’s Clinic plan.
