My experience switching from Sequence to One Medical

Some background

I've been on Zepbound since January. I initially went to my PCP but he was unable to prescribe it (due to it not being electronically prescribable at the time) and unwilling (he didn't want to fax it either). A few small comments he made also left me with a sour taste regarding his view of GLPs and weight loss in general.

So like others I tried going to Sequence. This was late December and they were great. They've been helpful with the PA process - they submitted PAs for me at 2.5mg, 5mg, and 7.5mg and all of them were approved without issue. I also liked having access and occasionally used the resources of talking to an RD, their online courses, and some of the WW forum stuff.

But after several months, it became clear to me that I was paying $99/month just to get the prescription. My care team didn't initiate check ins with me and honestly, that was fine. I've been in a steady holding pattern of losing consistently week after week, despite the ups and downs, but I started looking at other options to help save money.

One Medical

Not wanting to go back to my PCP, I searched about the various Telehealth companies and decided to give One Medical a try. So, I subscribed to Amazon Prime for a month and signed up for a month of One Medical. Not including taxes that's $24.

In the One Medical app, there are two main virtual care options: 1) Treat Me Now (via chat with a response within 4 hours) and 2) video chat for more urgent issues. At this point I was looking for a prescription refill so I chose Treat Me Now. I filled out their form providing basic information about myself and my request to refill Zepbound 15mg. Within 5 minutes I got a message back from an NP requesting some additional information. I wrote back, then 10 minutes later, I got a message saying they'd sent my prescription (including 3 refills!) to my pharmacy. And that was that.

I'm still shocked how easy that was. Probably easier since I've been on Zep for a while and my PA is still active so it was just a script refill, but man that was fast and easy...and cheap.

Unfortunately, I'm in a state that doesn't have any One Medical clinics so I can't use them to replace my PCP like I've read others have. If I did, I could do in person or remote visits that'd bill my insurance. While getting a script refill was super easy, I think it's for this reason (that I can't have regular visits to discuss and monitor my progress) that I won't continue using them after my script is out of refills.

I'd like to check in occasionally with a provider, check labs, and have that relationship. For that, I'm looking to try Circle Medical in the future since they accept my insurance and there are no membership fees - only billed insurance for each visit.

Anyway, I wanted to share my experience and hope that it helps someone out there. I think One Medical could definitely be a good option especially if you're at a point where you're managing well enough and don't need regular provider check ins.

tldr; saved a lot of money by switching from Sequence to One Medical, but it's more of an independent venture because I can't have a One Medical PCP.