Why I switched to Weight Watchers Clinic, by Sequence telehealth
If you read my Jan. 14th post, you know that I initially signed up with Form Health. I hoped they would be the perfect telehealth partner in my GLP-1 weight loss journey…. especially since my insurance plan covered the monthly fee.
Unfortunately, I got an email from Form explaining that I likely wouldn’t be assigned a doctor until March. I really didn’t want to wait two months or more to get started so I cancelled my account and went in search of another option.
Enter Weight Watchers Clinic, powered by Sequence
Weight Watchers bought telehealth company Sequence last year with the plan to expand its offerings from traditional weight loss plans to include support for people taking any of the GLP-1 medications or hoping to get started. The rebranded name for the telehealth company is Weight Watchers Clinic Powered by Sequence.
On the Weight Watchers Clinic homepage, there’s a headline that says, “At-home weight loss program, start in 5 minutes,” and that’s actually pretty accurate.
How to get started with Weight Watchers Clinic
I started the onboarding process by taking a quiz to verify that I qualify for the telehealth program. It took less than five minutes and the site then explained the program in-depth while discussing the possibility of being prescribed an FDA-approved weight loss drug (GLP-1 or something else if that’s not right for you).
At this point, I felt good about the program. I’d done regular Weight Watchers in the past and the website had answers to all the questions I had. I decided to join. All it took was typing in some personal information and adding my credit card information to pay the monthly fee (which isn’t charged until 30 days after you start the program).
What’s included in the Weight Watchers Clinic fee
I’m paying $81.50 per month for a six-month subscription with the first month free plus a $49 initial consultation fee. (You can pay month-to-month for $99 per month but then you can’t request a three-month supply of any prescriptions you’re on.)
My insurance doesn’t cover these fees, but I feel it’s worth it because, with Weight Watchers Clinic powered by Sequence, you have access to a board-certified doctor, a care coordinator, an insurance concierge, a registered dietician, a fitness coach, a personalized nutritional plan, the Weight Watchers GLP-1 app (or the regular version of the app if you decide not to take a GLP-1 medication), educational workshops, and more.
The monthly fee includes the cost of a few “core” medications, such as Metformin and Bupropion plus Naltrexone. Your clinician may prescribe these traditional weight loss drugs if you’re either not a candidate for a GLP-1 shot or your insurance won’t cover it and you’ve decided not to pay for it out of pocket. These medications will be sent to you for free.
If you are a candidate for a GLP-1 drug, your clinician will review the choices, which may include Zepbound, Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic, Saxenda, or Trulicity – among others.
After you pay the initial consultation fee, you are officially a Weight Watchers Clinic client and you can move on to the scheduling tool to pick a date/time for your first appointment with your board-certified clinician.
Appointments are easy to schedule
I signed up Saturday night so the next available appointments were on Sunday. I decided to wait until Monday though and picked the 11 a.m. slot.
Weight Watchers Clinic has doctors in all 50 states and does not support individuals outside of the U.S. When you sign up, you will be assigned a doctor who lives in the same state you do. I was paired with an endocrinologist based in the Miami area. When I Googled her name, I was very impressed with her credentials. She’s co-written multiple papers about the efficacy of GLP-1 weight loss injection medications and publishes helpful information to her TikTok and Instagram feeds.
How the appointment went
After how my in-person visit went with my primary care physician last week, I was a little nervous when I logged on to my virtual appointment with the endocrinologist. When you log in to your account, you’ll see the “Join” button for your meeting or you can click the link in the confirmation email that’s sent to you.
My doctor logged in right on time and put me at ease. It was clear from the get-go that she was an expert in all things GLP-1 and understood how to treat obesity as a disease. She reviewed my medical history and even gave me some advice for an issue I was having unrelated to my weight. By the end of the 15-minute consultation, I felt very comfortable with her.
She asked if I’d had my bloodwork done recently, which I had for my appointment with my primary care physician a few days earlier. I uploaded the results to the Weight Watchers Clinic portal. If I didn’t have recent bloodwork, the doctor would have prescribed it to me and I could have had it done locally at either a Quest or LabCorp location.
After we talked and she reviewed my medical history and bloodwork, she suggested that I try Zepbound and I agreed. (I had done a LOT Of research on all of the GLP-1 options before this appointment.)
She explained that she’d let the Weight Watchers Clinic insurance concierge know and the team would begin working on the prior authorization paperwork that my insurance company required. She warned me that the timeline would depend on how quickly the insurance company reviewed the PA once submitted.
In my case, the PA was approved by the insurance company within four hours and 20 minutes of my appointment! I doubt that would have happened so quickly if my local doctor had tried to submit the request. I feel that the concierge has so much experience writing these requests that the approval ratio for Weight Watchers Clinic patients is probably quite high.
About your Weight Watchers Clinic care team
When you sign up for the clinic, you are assigned a “team” that includes your clinician, a care coordinator, and an insurance concierge. You can message directly with your clinician and care coordinator online or in the app.
You can also make appointments with a registered dietician and fitness coach as needed.
Starting your ‘lessons’
When you begin with Weight Watchers Clinic, you get access to many online resources, including 32 lessons that will teach you about all aspects of weight management. I especially appreciated the lessons on goal setting, the importance of protein when taking a GLP-1 drug, and how to travel with GLP-1 shots (since I travel a lot for work).
Online events and support groups
You can also join all sorts of online group events. These are like webinars or educational workshops devoted to a particular topic. Definitely attend the orientation event, where reps from Weight Watchers Clinic Powered by Sequence explain everything you need to know about the company and the program.
There are also two fitness goal-setting workshops and four nutrition events (nutrition 101, meal planning, intuitive eating, and approaching/sustaining weight loss management).
Finally, there are a variety of support groups that can be very helpful if you’re dealing with specific challenges. The groups include Nutrition on a Core Medication, Nutrition on a GLP-1 Medication, Mental Health & Emotional Eating, Peri-/Post-Menopause Women’s Health, Bariatric Surgery, Disordered Eating, and Fitness Accountability.
You can also join a walking club, where you communicate with other members and all work toward increasing the number of steps you take each day.
The wrap-up
Right now, I feel very confident about my choice to join Weight Watchers Clinic Powered by Sequence. If you need to look beyond your local area to find the right partner for your weight loss journey, this clinic is worth a look. Just be aware that you will pay $99 out of pocket each month and that fee isn’t reimbursed by your insurance company.
