How I opened my own telehealth weight loss practice- for other NPs

Nurse practitioners often ask me how I started my own weight loss telehealth practice. Well here is my journey, in a nutshell. 

I have been a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner for many years. I have an extensive and  diverse career background in health care. You can read about me in the Meet Your NP section of my website https://telehealthnp.net/meet-your-np    My background and past jobs are essential to my having started my own practice. As a pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) I went back to school for my post-Masters FNP for the purpose of working in telehealth. Having just my PNP was very limiting for me in terms of job opportunities and has gotten worse for PNPs over the years. I’m very happy to have gone back for my FNP and it has opened up doors to many job opportunities. 

You need to know 3 things to start your own practice. 

1. Knowledge about weight loss, telehealth or whatever niche you choose to start your practice.

2. Knowledge about your NP and DEA licenses, your scope of practice and the laws where you live.

3. Business knowledge.

I first gained knowledge about weight loss when I started a childhood obesity program within the pediatric practice that I worked. I noticed there were a lot of kids with obesity and overweight, prediabetes, and high cholesterol, and I enjoy helping children and their families to gain control of their health. I designed my own program using guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics for childhood obesity. I gained skills regarding adult obesity and weight loss while working in a family practice setting and later when I went to work for a national weight loss company. 

I became skilled at telehealth by looking for any opportunity to work in telehealth over the years. I have worked for several telehealth platforms including Maven Clinic, SmartExam, and some private companies before starting my own telehealth company. I studied other companies and modeled my own after one of them. I find my telehealth jobs by subscribing to job alerts at Indeed and other job search platforms in order to keep my eye on the job market. 

I chose a patient population that I enjoy and is conducive to telehealth practice. My telehealth weight loss patients are generally younger and have no serious comorbidities. 

I enjoy and can talk all day about health, weight loss and nutrition. It’s interesting, always changing and easy for me. I’ve been interested in weight loss since I was a teenager and can identify with my patients since I have struggled with my own weight in the past. Don’t choose something you don’t enjoy or aren’t interested in. For example, I did not choose a men’s sexual health practice. I’m just not comfortable examining or talking about men’s genitals. I will refer them to urology. 

I chose my location by where I live and where my licenses are and only consider living or practicing in states that have full practice authority for nurse practitioners. I lived in Arizona and kept my license there when I moved to Oregon. I am very close to Washington, so I have a  license and see Washington patients also. If I needed too, I might get another license in another full practice state, but for now, I am busy enough with these three states. I understand my licenses in each of these three states. Each state has it’s own board and I have to stay in compliance with every one. I won’t risk losing my license and stay up to date with each of the state board rules and with the DEA rules.

I am an avid reader and read everything I can in medical journals and in popular media about weight loss, nutrition, telehealth, obesity, and anti-aging. I study what other experts are doing and incorporate that into my own business when it makes sense for me and my patients. I gain knowledge by taking many courses every year such as AANP Obesity certification courses, Low Carb USA courses, Justin Allen’s Elite NP courses in obesity, peptides, marketing and telehealth. I learned to set up my own website on SquareSpace. I read popular books on marketing. I have FaceBook and Instagram linked accounts for marketing. My marketing consists of Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, and word of mouth. Word of mouth and patient referrals is the best one, the others are hit or miss. 

I never take risks with my patients health or with my license to practice, but I’m not afraid to fail in life or in business. That is, I take calculated risks, and I learn from my mistakes and it’s made me who I am. I’m cautious and careful not to spend too much money, and that’s why I chose a low overhead business like telehealth. If you spend a lot of money you will be afraid of losing money, so instead, build it slowly, over time. I don’t have to do things perfectly. I am organized and set up checklists and systems for running my business. I batch my work so I’m not working all the time. I stay caught up on changes in the industry by continuing to read and learn and get certified when relevant. I did not rely on my own business income to live on at first. I kept my corporate job and over the years, I have been able to cut back on my corporate job hours. 

I use Simple Practice for my telehealth weight loss practice. It’s affordable, customizable, you upload consents, intakes and pt ed. Here’s $200 off if you sign up after 30d free trial. I pay $69/mo for my Essential account.

https://www.simplepractice.com/referral?p=043b3f6737

I charge my patients a monthly subscription that they can cancel at any time. I charge 3 levels of service: Basic, Deluxe, or Double Deluxe. Look at my website to see what that includes: https://telehealthnp.net/services

I write blog posts on losing weight, health and other relevant subjects in order to have subscribers that get to know and trust me while I offer them value. I offer excellent customer service. My patients can message me or set up additional phone appointments at any time. I am prompt with medication refills and responding to their questions.  

I prescribe any and all weight loss medications but primarily tirzepatide, semaglutide, phentermine. I prescribe meds based on the individual patient needs. I recommend the Mediterranean diet and help my patient navigate a nutrition plan. I offer additional support for helping them sleep better, alleviate stress, and recommend exercise tips. 

I developed my own program over many years of trial and error, while working for other companies and finding what I am good at and enjoy. Today, I have over a hundred patients subscribers a month. I developed my own checklists and systems to manage my work easily and quickly. TeleHealthNP income has surpassed my corporate job income but I continue to work my corporate job which provides excellent health and dental insurance, continuing education allowance, matched 401K. I enjoy the camaraderie of working in a practice. I have a large patient panel that I enjoy caring for and do not want to leave.

Start your own practice by following the steps:

1. Gain knowledge about weight loss, telehealth or your chosen niche.

2. Gain knowledge about your licenses and legal aspects of practicing. Don’t lose your license because you did not know something.

3. Gain knowledge about business. Setting up a website, how to market, how to choose a practice niche, etc.

   Stay tuned! I am working on a more detailed book about my experience starting my own telehealth business.

Good luck to you and please leave a comment below!