If you’re considering becoming a patient at Align but you’re not sure what the experience actually looks like, this is for you. We get a lot of questions about the mechanics of telehealth functional medicine. Most people have had quick virtual visits with a primary care doctor, but a comprehensive functional medicine workup is a different process. Here’s the full picture.
We do things a little differently than the typical functional medicine practice. Most clinics make you book one visit to tell your story, then a second visit weeks later to review labs and finally get a plan. We do all of it in one paid initial visit by front-loading your intake form and labs before we meet. That means you walk out of your first paid visit with an actual protocol, not another appointment on the calendar.
We offer two visit tiers depending on the depth of work your case requires. The Targeted Therapy Intake ($250, 30 minutes) is for single-issue protocols: GLP-1 weight loss, B12 series. The Comprehensive Functional Medicine Intake ($450, 60 minutes) is for complex chronic illness work: Lyme, hormone optimization, gut and fatigue, intracellular infections. Most patients self-select into the right tier based on which service page they came from. If you’re not sure which one fits, tell us in your intake form and we’ll guide you.
Step 1: Submit the lead form (5 minutes)
Start at alignintegrative.com. The form on the homepage takes about three minutes. We ask the basics: name, email, phone, what state you’re in, and what brings you here. That’s it.
We text you within one business day to confirm we received your information and to send the next step.
Step 2: Complete the intake form (15 to 20 minutes, at home)
Once you’re in our system, we send a comprehensive health-history intake form. It takes most patients 15 to 20 minutes. You complete it on your own time, online, before we meet.
What the form covers:
- Your top three to four chief complaints, prioritized
- Symptom timeline (when did things start, what’s gotten worse, what’s helped)
- Past medical history, surgeries, hospitalizations
- All current medications and supplements with doses
- Family history of relevant conditions
- Lifestyle factors: sleep, stress, diet, exercise, environment
- Goals (what does feeling better actually look like for you)
- Recent labs from any other provider in the last 12 months (you can upload them as PDFs or photos)
Why we ask all this upfront: We need it to order the right labs before your visit. The intake form is what makes the one-visit-with-a-plan model work. Spend the time on it. Vague answers get vague labs.
Step 3: Provider review and lab order (1 to 2 days)
Your provider (Cory or Rayna) reads through your intake form and decides which labs make sense. This usually takes 15 to 20 minutes of provider time and is included as part of your initial visit fee.
Standard labs we typically order:
- Comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP)
- CBC with differential
- Functional thyroid (TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3, antibodies)
- Lipid panel (advanced when warranted)
- Inflammation markers (hs-CRP, homocysteine)
- Hormone panels appropriate to your situation
- Nutrient markers (vitamin D, B12, folate, iron studies, magnesium)
- Fasting insulin and HbA1c
Specialty labs we may add based on your intake:
- GI-MAP or GI Effects (gut comprehensive)
- DUTCH (detailed hormone metabolites)
- Mycotoxin urine panel (mold)
- IGeneX or Vibrant (Lyme and coinfections)
- Organic acids (metabolic and microbial markers)
We send the lab requisition to your email and to LabCorp or Quest. You walk into a lab near home or work, no appointment needed in most locations. Specialty kit-based labs (like DUTCH or GI-MAP) ship to your home with collection instructions.
What standard labs cost: Most are insurance-billable through LabCorp or Quest depending on your plan. If you’re cash-pay, expect $100 to $300 for a standard panel.
What specialty labs cost: $200 to $800 depending on what we ordered. We tell you the cost before you draw.
Timing: Standard labs come back in 5 to 10 days. Specialty labs take 2 to 4 weeks. We schedule your initial visit based on which labs are needed, usually 2 to 3 weeks after your intake form is complete.
Step 4: The initial visit (30 to 60 minutes, video)
This is the visit you’ve been booking toward. By the time we meet, your provider has read your full intake, reviewed your labs, and already started thinking through your case.
What happens in the visit:
- The first portion is your story (about a third of the visit). You talk, we listen. We ask clarifying questions. This is where the things that don’t fit on a form come out.
- The next portion is lab review. We share screen and walk through every result. We explain what each marker means, what the standard reference range is, what the functional reference range is (often different), and what the pattern suggests.
- The final portion is the plan. We propose a protocol and explain the reasoning behind every piece. Medications, supplements, lifestyle interventions, follow-up testing, and timeline.
What you’ll come away with:
- A clear picture of what your labs show and what they don’t
- An initial protocol with specific recommendations
- A printable summary of the visit emailed to you within 24 hours
- Prescription orders sent to a compounding pharmacy or to your local pharmacy if applicable
- Supplement recommendations through Fullscript with our practitioner discount
- A clear explanation of what we’re treating first and why
- A scheduled follow-up visit, typically 4 to 6 weeks out
Tech setup: A computer with a working camera and microphone is best. A phone or tablet works but a larger screen makes lab review easier. We use a HIPAA-compliant video platform; the link comes in your appointment confirmation.
What if my labs aren’t all back yet? We schedule the visit only after your standard labs are in. If specialty labs are still pending, we cover what we have and add the specialty results to your follow-up. The visit doesn’t lose its value, the picture just gets sharper at follow-up.
Step 5: Medication or supplements arrive (5 to 7 days)
If we prescribed anything, it ships to your home from a licensed pharmacy. Compounded medications (GLP-1, hormones) come from licensed U.S. compounding pharmacies in temperature-controlled packaging, typically arriving within 5 to 7 business days.
If we recommended supplements through Fullscript, you can order them online with our practitioner discount. They typically arrive in 2 to 5 business days.
For injectables ( GLP-1, certain hormones), we provide written and video instructions for self-administration. If you have any anxiety about injections, we’ll spend time on it during your visit. Most patients are comfortable after the first one or two.
Step 6: Follow-up visits ($175 each, 30 minutes)
After your initial protocol starts, we check in regularly during the active phase. The cadence depends on the protocol:
- GLP-1 titration: monthly for the first 90 days, then every 60 to 90 days
- Hormone optimization: 6 weeks after start, then every 90 days
- Lyme and chronic illness: every 4 weeks during active treatment
- Gut and metabolic protocols: every 4 to 6 weeks initially
What we cover at follow-ups:
- How you’re feeling, by symptom and overall
- Side effects, if any
- Adherence (what’s working, what’s not)
- Dose adjustments if needed
- Refill management
- Next-phase planning
Re-labs: We typically order follow-up labs at 6 to 8 weeks for most protocols. For chronic illness work, re-testing is at 90 days or based on clinical milestones.
Communication between visits: You have direct messaging access to your provider through our patient portal. For non-urgent questions, we typically respond within one business day. We don’t charge for portal messages that take five minutes to answer. If a question turns into a clinical decision, that becomes a follow-up visit.
Step 7: Stable maintenance
Once your protocol is working and your labs reflect the changes we want, you transition to maintenance mode. Visits drop to quarterly. Re-labs happen every 6 to 12 months depending on what we’re tracking. You stay on whatever long-term protocol makes sense for your situation.
For some patients (GLP-1, BHRT), maintenance is indefinite, similar to managing a chronic condition. For others (acute Lyme treatment, mold protocols), maintenance is a step-down phase that eventually ends with monitoring only.
What costs to budget for
One-time:
- Targeted Therapy Intake (45 to 60 min): $250
- Comprehensive Functional Medicine Intake (90 min): $450
- Standard labs: $100 to $300 (or insurance-billable)
- Specialty labs at intake: $200 to $800 depending on what’s ordered
Recurring:
- Follow-up visits: $175 each, cadence depends on protocol
- Compounded medications: $100 to $400 per month depending on what’s prescribed
- Supplements through Fullscript: optional, varies widely
Total ballpark monthly during active treatment:
- GLP-1 patients: $250 setup + ~$300 to $400/month all in
- Hormone patients: $450 setup + ~$200 to $400/month all in
- Lyme/chronic illness patients: $450 + lab cost ($200 to $1,000 depending on what’s ordered) at setup, then $300 to $800/month during active treatment, less during maintenance
- Comprehensive functional workup: $450 + lab cost ($200 to $1,200) at setup, then $300 to $500/month during active treatment
We discuss costs at every stage. No surprise bills.
What to ask before you commit
If you’re evaluating any telehealth practice (us or anyone else), here are useful questions to bring to your initial visit:
- What’s included in the visit fee? It should cover the visit time plus pre-visit intake review and lab order setup. If a clinic is charging separate fees for each piece of that, that’s a sign of nickel-and-diming.
- What labs will I need and what will they cost? A real clinic will give you a range upfront based on your intake. Vague answers are a yellow flag.
- How often will I be seen? Monthly during titration is standard for most protocols. Quarterly during maintenance. If they’re seeing you only once a year, that’s not clinical care.
- What happens if I don’t respond to the protocol? Real practices adjust. Pill-mill operations don’t.
- What’s your communication policy between visits? You should have direct provider messaging.
- What’s the cancellation policy? You should be able to cancel monthly subscriptions any time. If they require multi-month commitments, that’s a red flag.
- Who actually sees me at each visit, and what’s their training? Continuity matters. You should see the same provider, not a rotating cast.
Why we structured it this way
We used to run a two-visit model: story visit, then lab review visit. We changed it because patients consistently told us they wanted faster momentum and a real plan from the first paid visit. Front-loading the intake form and labs adds about a week to the timeline (waiting on labs to come back) but eliminates a whole visit on the back end. Net result: faster to a real plan, same or lower total cost, better adherence, and a paid initial visit that actually feels worth what you paid for it.
If your case is unusually complex or you’d prefer the two-visit approach for some reason, we can do that. Tell us in your intake form. The default is one paid visit with a plan because that works best for most patients.
The honest version
Telehealth functional medicine done right is not faster than in-person care. It’s not necessarily cheaper. What it is is more accessible, more flexible, and often more thorough than what you’d get in a 7-minute insurance visit at a primary care office.
What you trade for that accessibility is in-person physical exam, which matters for some clinical questions and not for others. We’ll tell you when we think you need an in-person evaluation and refer accordingly.
If you’re ready to talk about your situation, the initial visit is $250 (Targeted) or $450 (Comprehensive). By the end of the visit, we’ll have your story, labs, and a real protocol on the table.