How this business actually works, written by people who run it.

How to start a telehealth business in 2026

The full sequence, in the order it actually has to happen: entity and MSO structure, provider network, pharmacy, payments, LegitScript, then traffic. Most launches stall at step four.

Anmol Sethi · 6 min read

How much does a white-label telehealth platform actually cost?

Published fees, percentage models, and the line items that do not appear on the first page of a proposal. With the real arithmetic at 300, 1,000 and 3,000 patients.

Marcus Ellery · 5 min read

LegitScript certification: what it costs and how long it really takes

The fees, the realistic timeline, why most applications stall, and what certification actually unlocks. Filed unaided this runs three to six months. It does not have to.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

How to choose a telehealth platform

Feature lists are close to useless in this category, because every platform has the same features. Twelve questions that actually separate them, and what a good answer sounds like.

Anmol Sethi · 4 min read

How to migrate telehealth platforms without losing subscribers

The technical migration is the easy part. The expensive part is card tokens, and whether your outgoing platform will release them. Here is how to find out before you commit.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

Merchant of record: the term that decides what you actually own

It sounds like a payments technicality. It determines who receives your patients' money, who holds their cards, and what your business is worth to an acquirer.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

Operator guide18

Step-by-step guides for launching and running a telehealth brand.

How to start a telehealth business in 2026

The full sequence, in the order it actually has to happen: entity and MSO structure, provider network, pharmacy, payments, LegitScript, then traffic. Most launches stall at step four.

Anmol Sethi · 6 min read

How much does a white-label telehealth platform actually cost?

Published fees, percentage models, and the line items that do not appear on the first page of a proposal. With the real arithmetic at 300, 1,000 and 3,000 patients.

Marcus Ellery · 5 min read

LegitScript certification: what it costs and how long it really takes

The fees, the realistic timeline, why most applications stall, and what certification actually unlocks. Filed unaided this runs three to six months. It does not have to.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

How to choose a telehealth platform

Feature lists are close to useless in this category, because every platform has the same features. Twelve questions that actually separate them, and what a good answer sounds like.

Anmol Sethi · 4 min read

How to migrate telehealth platforms without losing subscribers

The technical migration is the easy part. The expensive part is card tokens, and whether your outgoing platform will release them. Here is how to find out before you commit.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

Merchant of record: the term that decides what you actually own

It sounds like a payments technicality. It determines who receives your patients' money, who holds their cards, and what your business is worth to an acquirer.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

HIPAA compliance for telehealth brands

A signed BAA is the contractual floor, not the achievement. What HIPAA actually requires of a direct-to-consumer telehealth operation, and where brands most often get it wrong.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

How to price a telehealth subscription

Pricing in this category is not a number, it is a structure: what cadence you bill on, how much commitment you ask for, and whether your platform lets you change any of it.

Tobias Lund · 4 min read

Async vs sync visits: which one your category actually needs

Requiring a video visit where one is not needed is the most expensive avoidable decision in a telehealth funnel. Skipping one where it is required is a compliance failure.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

Telehealth intake: screen before you charge

Where the eligibility rules run decides whether an ineligible patient is a polite decline or a refund, a processing fee and a dispute. It is the most expensive ordering decision in the funnel.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

Compounding pharmacy: what telehealth operators need to know

The difference between 503A and 503B, why a single pharmacy relationship becomes your ceiling, and why fulfillment is the step that quietly stalls most launches.

Dana Whitfield · 4 min read

Running more than one telehealth brand

The second brand is where platform decisions you made casually become expensive. Contract terms, implementation fees and shared infrastructure all behave differently at portfolio scale.

Anmol Sethi · 3 min read

What is white-label telehealth?

Infrastructure that lets a brand run a telehealth clinic under its own name, with the platform invisible to the patient. The label tells you almost nothing about the deal underneath it.

Anmol Sethi · 3 min read

State licensure in telehealth

A provider licensed in Florida cannot treat a patient sitting in Ohio. That single rule shapes your provider network, your intake routing and which states you can profitably advertise in.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

MSO structure for telehealth brands

Corporate practice of medicine rules stop non-clinicians owning entities that practise medicine. The MSO structure is how the category resolves that, and it has to be genuine rather than cosmetic.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

Telehealth vs telemedicine

Used interchangeably almost everywhere, including by people who should know better. The distinction is real, and it changes which regulations and which platforms apply to you.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

White-label vs private-label vs reseller telehealth

Three arrangements described with the same vocabulary and offering radically different ownership. The difference decides whether you have a business or a commission.

Anmol Sethi · 3 min read

Telehealth vs retail pharmacy

The mainstream alternative to a telehealth brand is not another telehealth brand. It is a doctor's appointment and a pharmacy counter, and understanding why patients avoid that is the whole positioning.

Tobias Lund · 3 min read

Vertical deep dive14

How each treatment category actually works, clinically and operationally.

How to start a GLP-1 telehealth business

The largest category in direct-to-consumer telehealth, and the one where operational detail decides margin. Titration, cold chain and check-in gated refills are where the money is won or lost.

Dana Whitfield · 4 min read

How to start a TRT telehealth business

Testosterone is a DEA Schedule III controlled substance, and that single fact reshapes the entire program. A platform that treats TRT like a GLP-1 refill is a compliance problem waiting to surface.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

How to start a menopause and HRT telehealth brand

A multi-year clinical relationship sold as a subscription. Lighter than TRT operationally, and almost entirely a retention business rather than an acquisition one.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

How to start a peptide telehealth business

The fastest-growing and most closely watched category in telehealth. The difference between a durable brand and a shut-down ad account is almost entirely catalog discipline and claims.

Priya Raghunathan · 4 min read

How to start a hair loss telehealth brand

The longest proof cycle in telehealth. A patient decides whether to keep paying months before the therapy can possibly show a result, which makes this a retention design problem first.

Tobias Lund · 3 min read

How to start a sexual health telehealth brand

The highest-intent, lowest-tolerance category in telehealth. Every operational choice follows from one requirement: the patient wants this handled without anyone finding out.

Tobias Lund · 3 min read

How to start a longevity telehealth brand

Sold as a membership, delivered as prescription therapy. That tension is the whole operational challenge, and billing a membership fee against a shipment that never left is where it breaks.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

Cold chain shipping: the coverage problem nobody prices in

Not every compounding pharmacy can ship temperature-sensitive medication. That means your real state coverage for GLP-1 is smaller than your network's, and failures are usually silent.

Dana Whitfield · 4 min read

Semaglutide vs tirzepatide

Two GLP-1 compounds with different mechanisms, different titration ladders and, for an operator, meaningfully different economics and fulfillment requirements.

Dana Whitfield · 3 min read

Enclomiphene vs testosterone

One is a DEA Schedule III controlled substance available in a limited set of states. The other is not controlled and prescribable everywhere. For an operator that difference is the whole business case.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

Oral vs injectable GLP-1

The format decision is usually framed as patient preference. Operationally it is a cold-chain decision, and cold chain is what caps your real state coverage.

Dana Whitfield · 3 min read

What is sermorelin?

A peptide prescribed in longevity and wellness programmes. For an operator the questions that matter are catalog legitimacy, refill cadence and how carefully the marketing is written.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

What is NAD+?

A coenzyme at the centre of the longevity conversation, offered in injectable, nasal and oral formats. For an operator, the format decision drives fulfillment and the copy drives risk.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

Compounded vs branded medication

The difference is regulatory, not cosmetic, and it governs how your storefront is allowed to describe what you sell. Getting the language wrong is where brands attract attention.

Priya Raghunathan · 3 min read

Unit economics9

The numbers that decide whether a telehealth brand compounds or leaks.

Revenue share vs flat fee in telehealth

The two models look similar on a proposal and diverge permanently in practice. Here is the arithmetic at 300, 1,000 and 3,000 patients, and the structural argument underneath it.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

LTV and CAC in telehealth

The 3:1 rule came from software businesses with near-zero marginal cost. Telehealth has medication, fulfillment and clinical cost in every single month, which changes the answer.

Tobias Lund · 4 min read

Involuntary churn: the cheapest revenue you are not collecting

Patients who wanted to stay and whose card failed. No persuasion required, no discount needed, and most of it is recoverable with infrastructure rather than marketing.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

Telehealth payment processing rates

Stripe publishes 2.9% plus 30 cents. Platforms in this category charge anywhere from below that to a full point above it. Here is how to tell which one you are being offered.

Marcus Ellery · 3 min read

Contribution margin in telehealth

Gross margin flatters this business and revenue tells you almost nothing. Contribution per patient per month is the number that decides what you can spend, what you can charge, and whether you can grow.

Marcus Ellery · 3 min read

Blended CAC in telehealth

Platform-reported cost per acquisition flatters every channel simultaneously. Blended CAC is total spend divided by total new patients, and it is the only version that reconciles with your bank account.

Tobias Lund · 3 min read

Chargebacks in telehealth

In a category processors already code high risk, the chargeback ratio is not a customer service metric. Above threshold it puts the merchant account itself at risk.

Marcus Ellery · 3 min read

A GLP-1 brand at 1,000 patients, modelled line by line

A complete first-year cost model for a weight management brand, computed from published pricing so you can check every figure and substitute your own.

Marcus Ellery · 3 min read

A med spa adding a remote prescription line

In-room businesses are capacity-bound. A remote line uses the same audience and the same brand without needing another chair, another room or another hour of staff time.

Tobias Lund · 3 min read

Platform comparison7

Honest platform comparisons, with sources and a standing correction offer.

Bask Health vs OpenLoop

Two of the most established platforms in white-label telehealth, compared on the three things that actually separate platforms in this category. Plus a third option worth knowing about.

Anmol Sethi · 5 min read

Cuvo vs Rimo

Both refuse the revenue share, both publish pricing, both launch fast. The decision comes down to whether you want the clinic operated for you, and who holds the merchant account.

Anmol Sethi · 4 min read

OpenLoop vs CareValidate

One takes roughly half of patient revenue and carries your medication cost. The other charges a monthly fee plus 3.9% processing and leaves fulfillment cost with you. Very different bets.

Marcus Ellery · 4 min read

The best white-label telehealth platforms in 2026

Nine platforms, compared on the four things that actually separate them. Written by one of them, which is disclosed throughout, with the cases where a competitor is the better answer stated plainly.

Anmol Sethi · 4 min read

OpenLoop alternatives

If the issue is that OpenLoop collects your patients' payments and pays you a share, these are the platforms structured the other way around. Including what OpenLoop does better.

Anmol Sethi · 3 min read

Bask Health alternatives

Bask is a strong platform with a real developer surface and SOC 2 Type II. If what you want is flat-fee economics and brand-owned payments, these are the platforms structured that way.

Anmol Sethi · 3 min read