If you’ve been on my site once or twice and haven’t booked yet, this article is for you. Most patients I talk to who hesitated to schedule had one or two unanswered questions floating around in their head, what does it actually cost? Does my insurance work? What happens on the call? Do I have to drive somewhere for labs? I would rather you know all of it up front than have to puzzle through it.
Here is exactly what a virtual weight loss visit at Liberty Family Care & Wellness looks like, from the moment you click “book” to the moment your prescription is on its way.
First, am I able to see you virtually?
Two requirements:
- You must be physically located in the state of Texas at the time of your appointment. This is a state licensing requirement, not a preference. If you travel out of state regularly, we’ll work around it; if you’ve moved, I’ll need to know.
- You need to be in a safe, private space. Not driving. Not in the carpool line. Not on a Bluetooth headset while running errands. A bedroom, an office, your parked car in a driveway, anywhere quiet where you can focus and we can have a real medical conversation without interruption.
That’s it for eligibility. You do not need to be a current patient. You do not need a referral.
Insurance and pricing, the question everyone wants answered first
I keep this transparent because pill-mill telehealth has trained patients to expect bait-and-switch pricing, and I’m not interested in playing that game.
- Insurance. I’m in-network with most major payors and accept most major insurance plans. If you have insurance, your cost is your usual visit copay or coinsurance, the same as if you were seeing your primary care provider in person.
- Cash pay. If you don’t have insurance, or your plan doesn’t cover the visit, my self-pay rates are flat and predictable: $162.50 for a new patient visit and $109.00 for an established patient visit. No hidden fees. No mandatory monthly subscription. No “membership” upcharge to talk to me.
- Compare that to the alternative. A typical online weight-loss subscription is $99–$300 per month and bundles your medication with what they call “unlimited messaging,” which in practice usually means an asynchronous chat handled by AI or whoever is on shift. My fee covers an actual appointment with an actual clinician, and you only pay when you have a visit.
Medication cost is separate and handled at the pharmacy. Your insurance benefits, GoodRx, manufacturer savings cards, or cash pricing all apply normally.
Step 1 — booking your appointment
Two options:
- Use the scheduling link on libertyfamilycare.com. Pick a time that works for you, enter your basic information, and you’re on the calendar.
- You can also call the office and we’ll schedule you the old-fashioned way.
Online is faster and you’ll see real-time availability, but if you’d rather hear a human voice, the phone works just as well.
Step 2 — your intake paperwork (before the visit)
After you book, you’ll receive a link to your intake paperwork. Please complete it before your appointment. I’m asking the same things any primary care office would: medical history, current medications, allergies, family history, weight history, what you’ve already tried, what your goals are.
Two reasons it matters: it makes the visit faster and more useful (we don’t burn 10 minutes on data entry), and I review it before we start, so I walk into the call already knowing your history rather than reading it for the first time during your appointment. The patients who fill it out completely and honestly get the most out of their visits.
Step 3 — the day of your visit
Here is where my system is different from corporate telehealth, and I think better:
- Roughly 10–15 minutes before your scheduled time, my front desk will call you for check-in. This is standard, confirming insurance, payment, where you’re located.
- When I am actually ready to start, I send you a text with the video link. You click it, we connect, the visit begins.
The reason I do it this way: most online telehealth puts you in a digital “waiting room” with a spinning wheel, and you have no idea whether I’m on time, running 10 minutes behind, or running 30 minutes behind. I run a real primary care clinic, and sometimes the patient ahead of you needs an extra few minutes. With this system, you don’t sit there watching a buffer icon, you go about your day, and the moment I’m genuinely ready for you, the link arrives. You are never waiting on me. I am coming to you when it’s your time.
I use Doximity for the video call itself. It’s HIPAA-compliant, requires no app to download, and works on any smartphone or computer.
Step 4 — what happens on the call
A typical virtual visit is 10–20 minutes, similar to an in-office appointment. On the call, we will:
- Review your intake, your history, your goals, and any current medications.
- Talk through what we’re seeing, vitals you’ve taken at home (weight, blood pressure if you have a cuff) or what you can relay from recent measurements.
- Discuss the medication options that fit your situation, including realistic side effects and how we’ll manage them together.
- Go through the plan: what we’re prescribing, what labs I want, what we’re tracking, and when we’ll meet next.
If you have a home blood pressure cuff or a scale, you can use them during the visit. If you don’t, you can relay numbers from your most recent measurements. We figure it out.
Step 5 — labs
I order labs through Quest Diagnostics. There are Quest patient service centers throughout Texas, most patients have one within 10 minutes of home. You’ll receive the lab order electronically, make an appointment (needed at most locations), get the draw, and the results come back to me automatically.
Standard panel for a new weight loss patient:
- CBC and CMP — overall blood count, kidney function, liver function, electrolytes.
- Hemoglobin A1c — your average blood sugar over the past three months.
- Fasting insulin — gives me information about insulin resistance that A1c alone misses.
- Lipid panel — cholesterol, triglycerides.
- TSH — thyroid function. A missed thyroid issue will sabotage any weight loss plan.
- Vitamin D — commonly low and worth correcting.
- Lipase — pancreatic baseline, important before starting a GLP-1.
This is a more thorough panel than what most pill-mill telehealth orders, where the most common “lab work” is none at all. I want a real picture of your metabolic health before I prescribe.
Step 6 — the prescription
Once we agree on a plan, your prescription is sent electronically to the pharmacy. Branded GLP-1s (Wegovy, Zepbound, Ozempic, Mounjaro, Foundayo) go to whichever pharmacy is closest to your home or in-network with your insurance or direct to the manufacturer. I help with prior authorizations when your plan requires one.
If a compounded option is the right fit for your situation, we’ll discuss that during your visit and I’ll send the prescription to a pharmacy I have vetted and trust for safety and efficacy.
Step 7 — follow-up
For active weight loss, I typically see patients every 2 months. That’s frequent enough to catch dose adjustments, side effects, and plateaus early, but not so frequent that you’re spending your life in appointments. As you transition into a maintenance phase, the interval gets longer.
Between visits, you can reach the office during normal business hours by phone or through the patient portal. For urgent medical concerns, the same protocols as any primary care office apply.
What I won’t do
- I won’t prescribe a GLP-1 in the first visit without reviewing your history, ordering appropriate labs, and confirming there are no contraindications. Anyone who promises you a same-day script with history review or no labs is selling you something other than medicine.
- I won’t keep prescribing if you stop showing up for follow-up. Continuity is part of safety, not a hassle.
- I won’t pretend medication alone will get you where you want to go. The medication is powerful. It is not the whole plan.
Ready to book?
If you’re a Texas resident and you’d like to stop renting your medical care from an out-of-state subscription service, I’d be glad to be your provider. Visit libertyfamilycare.com to schedule online, or call the office.
I take this kind of care seriously, and I think you should, too.
— Laura Cervantes, DNP, APRN, FNP-C
Liberty Family Care & Wellness, Rowlett, TX
This article is general medical education, not medical advice for any specific person, and reading it does not establish a practitioner-patient relationship. If you have a medical concern, please consult a licensed clinician. If you are in Texas, you can book a virtual visit at libertyfamilycare.com.
