Our Methodology
How We Rate Telehealth Providers
Ally's ratings are built on patient-reported data, public pricing verification, and clinical protocol review — not provider payments or placement fees. Here's exactly how we score every provider we cover.
Revenue never influences our rankings or reviews.
Ally earns money through provider lead generation — a flat fee per patient inquiry, the same for every provider regardless of plan or revenue. No placement fees. No paid rankings. Our editorial team operates independently of our business team.See exactly how we make money →
What we stand for
Patient First
Every rating decision asks one question: what's best for the patient seeking care? Provider interests are secondary.
Radical Transparency
We publish our scoring weights, data sources, and conflicts of interest. No black-box ratings here.
Verified Data
Prices and protocols are verified against live provider sources every 90 days — not copied from press releases.
Revenue Separation
A firewall separates our business team from editorial. Rankings are never available for purchase at any price.
Our methodology by the numbers
40+
Telehealth providers tracked
90 days
Full re-evaluation cycle
Monthly
Pricing verification cadence
5
Weighted scoring criteria
3×
Weight boost for verified reviews
48 hrs
Max price-error correction window
On This Page
How We Rate Providers
Each provider is scored on five weighted criteria. Scores are re-evaluated every 90 days or whenever we detect a pricing or protocol change.
Price Transparency
We collect actual billed prices — not estimates — for every dose, frequency, and billing-cycle combination. Providers that hide prices behind intake forms are penalised. We verify pricing against live checkout flows monthly.
Protocol Quality
Dosing schedules, titration guidance, and clinical oversight are reviewed against published GLP-1 prescribing guidelines. A medical advisor on our editorial team flags gaps.
Prescriber Access
How quickly can a patient reach a licensed prescriber? We measure time-to-first consult, synchronous vs. asynchronous availability, and follow-up access.
Patient Outcomes & Reviews
Patient-reported outcomes from verified treatment histories. We weight reviews from patients with confirmed prescriptions 3× over unverified reviews.
Operational Transparency
Does the provider publish their prescribing policies, compounding pharmacy sources, and cancellation terms? Transparency in business operations signals trustworthiness toward patients.
Scoring Rubric
We translate each criterion into a 1–10 sub-score, then combine them using the weights above. The final Ally Score is a weighted average rounded to one decimal place. No editorial adjustment is applied after calculation.
| Criterion | Weight | Score 8–10 | Score 4–7 | Score 1–3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price Transparency | 25% | All prices public, no intake gate | Partial disclosure, some fees hidden | Prices hidden behind consult |
| Protocol Quality | 25% | Titration + monitoring meets guidelines | Basic titration, limited monitoring | Protocol gaps or no clinical oversight |
| Prescriber Access | 20% | Live consult <48h, unlimited follow-up | Async only, or >48h wait | No follow-up or AI-only intake |
| Patient Outcomes | 20% | 4.5+ avg, 100+ verified reviews | 3.5–4.4 avg, or <50 verified | Below 3.5 or no verified reviews |
| Op. Transparency | 10% | Full disclosure: pharmacy, cancel, refund | Partial disclosure | Key policies undisclosed |
| Final Ally Score | (Price × 0.25) + (Protocol × 0.25) + (Access × 0.20) + (Outcomes × 0.20) + (OpTrans × 0.10) | |||
No curve, no override. The score you see on a provider page is the exact output of this formula. Our editorial team can annotate a review with qualitative context, but cannot adjust the numeric score up or down.
How We Collect Data
Every Ally Score is built from primary-source data collected directly from providers — not aggregated from third-party databases or copied from press releases. Here is the five-step collection process that runs before each quarterly evaluation.
- 1
Live Checkout Audits
Our team tests provider checkout flows directly — not marketing pages — to record the actual price at each dose, frequency, and billing-cycle combination. If a price requires an intake form to unlock, we record it as gated and apply a penalty to the Price Transparency sub-score.
- 2
Protocol Document Review
We request and review clinical protocols from each provider, including titration schedules, monitoring requirements, and side-effect management guidance. Our board-certified medical reviewer benchmarks these documents against AACE and Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) prescribing guidelines.
- 3
Prescriber Access Testing
We submit intake inquiries to each provider and measure actual time-to-first-prescriber-contact, distinguishing between synchronous (live video/phone) and asynchronous (message-only) access models. We also test whether follow-up access is included or billed separately.
- 4
Patient Review Verification
Patient reviews are ingested from multiple sources and cross-referenced against prescription-confirmation signals. Reviews with verified treatment histories receive a 3× weight multiplier. We flag reviews with internal inconsistencies for manual audit before inclusion.
- 5
Operational Disclosure Audit
We check each provider's public-facing policies for pharmacy source disclosure, cancellation terms, and refund policy accessibility. Policies that require a signed consent to view, or that change between intake and billing, are flagged and scored lower.
Data hygiene policy:All primary-source data is timestamped and stored with the collector's identifier. If a provider disputes a data point, we publish the original evidence alongside any correction so the change is fully traceable.
How We Make Money
Ally earns revenue through non-exclusive lead referrals — when a patient we send to a provider completes an intake, we receive a flat fee. This fee is the same regardless of provider, plan, or subscription value.
- Referral fee is flat — not a percentage of provider revenue
- Participating in our referral network does not improve a provider's score
- Providers that don't participate are rated and ranked identically
- We do not currently run display ads on provider comparison pages
Editorial Independence Guarantee
Our editorial team and business team are separated by policy and by org chart. The following practices enforce that separation:
Editors never know which providers are in the referral network
Business agreements are invisible to the team writing reviews. Editors score providers based purely on data in our internal tool.
Score changes require documentation
Every score update is logged with a reason, evidence link, and the reviewer's name. This log is available upon request.
Providers cannot request score changes
We accept factual corrections (wrong price, wrong pharmacy info) from providers, but all changes go through editorial review before updating.
All sponsored content is labeled at the section level
Any content involving a paid relationship is labeled "Sponsored" in amber, using our disclosure design standard. It can never visually mimic editorial content.
Our Editorial Team
Ally's ratings are written and verified by a team of independent researchers, medical reviewers, and patient advocates.
MPH, Health Journalism
Sarah leads Ally's editorial operations, overseeing all provider reviews, pricing audits, and methodology updates. She previously covered healthcare policy for a national health publication.
MD, Board-Certified Obesity Medicine
Dr. Okafor reviews all clinical protocol assessments on the platform. With over a decade in obesity medicine and telehealth, he ensures our protocol ratings reflect current prescribing standards.
MS Pharmacology, Patient Advocacy
Maria manages patient outcome data collection and review verification. Her background in pharmacology and patient advocacy ensures our outcomes data reflects real treatment experiences.
Pricing analyst position — joining soon
Medical reviewers on Ally's team do not hold financial interests in any telehealth provider covered on this site. Reviewer conflicts are disclosed if they arise and the affected review is reassigned.
Corrections Policy
When we get something wrong, we correct it publicly. Price errors are corrected within 48 hours of notification. Methodology corrections are documented in our changelog. To report an error, email corrections@telehealthally.com.
Price errors
Verified and corrected within 48 hours of a valid report.
Protocol data errors
Reviewed by our medical reviewer within 5 business days. If a correction changes the Ally Score, the updated score is published alongside a changelog entry.
Methodology changes
Any change to scoring weights or criteria definitions is announced at least 30 days before taking effect. Historical scores are not retroactively adjusted; the new formula applies from the next quarterly cycle.
Provider disputes
Providers may submit factual corrections through our editorial contact. All submissions are reviewed against primary sources. Corrections that are confirmed update within 10 business days.
Common Questions About Our Methodology
Answers to the questions we hear most often from patients, providers, and journalists.
How does Telehealth Ally rate telehealth providers?
Telehealth Ally scores each provider on five weighted criteria: Price Transparency (25%), Protocol Quality (25%), Prescriber Access (20%), Patient Outcomes & Reviews (20%), and Operational Transparency (10%). Each criterion is scored on a 1–10 scale and combined into a weighted average called the Ally Score. No editorial adjustment is applied after the formula runs.
What is the Ally Score and how is it calculated?
The Ally Score is a weighted average of five sub-scores: (Price × 0.25) + (Protocol × 0.25) + (Access × 0.20) + (Outcomes × 0.20) + (OpTrans × 0.10). Scores range from 1.0 to 10.0, rounded to one decimal place. An Ally Score of 8.0 or above indicates Excellent; 6.0–7.9 is Good; 4.0–5.9 is Fair; below 4.0 is Poor.
Does Telehealth Ally accept payment from providers in exchange for better ratings?
No. Telehealth Ally's revenue model is a flat-fee referral: when a patient we refer completes a provider intake, we receive a fixed fee regardless of which provider they choose or what plan they select. Our editorial team operates independently and does not know which providers participate in the referral network. Participating in our referral program does not improve a provider's Ally Score.
How often are provider ratings updated on Telehealth Ally?
Provider scores are fully re-evaluated every 90 days. Pricing is verified against live provider checkout flows on a monthly basis. If we detect a pricing or protocol change between quarterly reviews, we trigger an immediate partial re-evaluation for the affected criteria.
What clinical standards does Telehealth Ally use to evaluate GLP-1 protocols?
Our medical reviewer benchmarks each provider's GLP-1 prescribing protocol against published clinical guidelines including those from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA). We specifically evaluate titration schedule appropriateness, patient monitoring requirements, side-effect guidance, and follow-up access for medication adjustments.
How does Telehealth Ally verify patient reviews?
Telehealth Ally weights patient reviews from individuals with confirmed GLP-1 prescriptions 3× more heavily than reviews from patients without verified treatment histories. We cross-reference submission metadata, prescription confirmation signals, and review content for internal consistency. Unverifiable reviews are included at baseline weight but never inflated.
What data sources does Telehealth Ally use for pricing information?
We collect actual billed prices directly from provider checkout flows, not from marketing pages or press releases. Our team tests live purchase flows for every dose, frequency, and billing-cycle combination available. Providers that gate pricing behind intake forms receive a lower Price Transparency sub-score regardless of their actual pricing competitiveness.
How does Telehealth Ally make money?
Telehealth Ally earns revenue through non-exclusive lead referrals. When a patient we send to a provider completes an intake, we receive a flat fee. This fee is identical for every provider and every plan — it is not a percentage of provider revenue and it does not scale with the patient's subscription value. Ally does not run display advertising on provider comparison pages.
Editorial Independence
Revenue never influences rankings
Updated Quarterly
Prices & protocols re-verified every 90 days
Transparent Methodology
Patient-Verified Reviews
Reviews tied to confirmed treatment history
Telehealth Ally provides independent comparison information. We are not a medical provider. Content on this site is for informational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting any treatment. Telehealth Ally may receive compensation when you click provider links — this does not influence our editorial ratings. See our methodology.
© 2026 Telehealth Ally. All rights reserved.