What does it actually cost to switch providers?

What the Switch Cost does

This free tool answers one question: if you move from one women's telehealth provider to another, what changes on your bill and your calendar? It runs as a four-step picker with no login. You choose the brand you're on now, the brand you're considering, and your insurance situation (Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Humana, or self-pay). It then lays out the difference side by side.

The result screen shows four numbers: the monthly change, the yearly change, an estimated transition time in weeks, and the gap between the two brands' editorial scores. It also builds a plain switch checklist and links to each brand's full profile so you can read the detail behind the numbers before you decide anything.

The dollar figures come from each brand's published starting price — the lowest advertised monthly rate in our provider database, refreshed daily. The calculator subtracts your current brand's starting price from your target's to get the monthly change, then multiplies by twelve for the annual figure. It is arithmetic on list prices, not a quote, an underwriting decision, or a prediction of what you personally will be charged.

How to read your result

Read the monthly and annual cards as the direction and rough size of the change between two advertised starting prices. A negative number (shown in the positive color) means the target brand's entry price is lower than your current one; a positive number means it's higher. The annual card is simply the monthly figure times twelve, so it magnifies whatever the monthly gap already shows.

The transition-time card is a flat estimate, not a schedule tied to your file. It starts at about two weeks of standard onboarding and adds two more weeks only when the insurer you picked requires prior authorization for HRT or GLP-1 in our data — giving you either a roughly two-week or roughly four-week figure, nothing in between. The score-delta card compares the two brands' editorial scores from our reviews; it reflects our assessment, not price or medical outcome.

Treat the whole result as a starting point for a conversation, not an answer. The checklist it generates — bridge a 30-day refill, complete the new intake before your current prescription runs out, forward your dose history and labs, and keep a one-week overlap — is the practical takeaway most people can act on. Anything about dose, eligibility, or what your plan will actually pay belongs with the prescriber and the insurer themselves.

What the result is based on

Every number on the result screen is derived from two data points per brand: the starting price and the editorial score stored in our provider database, plus a single flag from the insurer table. Monthly change equals target starting price minus current starting price; annual change is that value times twelve; the score delta is the difference of the two editorial scores. The insurance step affects only the timeline: if the carrier you select is marked prior-authorization-required for HRT or GLP-1, the tool adds two weeks to a two-week base, and otherwise leaves it at two.

The brand list is limited to providers marked active and is ordered by editorial score. If a brand has no starting price recorded, the tool treats it as zero for the math, which can distort the delta. Nothing here is generated by a model or fitted to a dataset — it is fixed arithmetic and a fixed lookup table.

What it cannot tell you

• It compares starting prices only — the cheapest advertised tier of each brand — not the plan you're actually on or the one you'd choose. If your current subscription is a higher tier, the real gap can be very different from what the tool shows.
• Your insurance selection does not change any dollar figure. It only decides whether two weeks are added to the transition estimate. The cost cards always use list prices, even when you pick a carrier, so an insured out-of-pocket cost is not modeled anywhere.
• The transition estimate is a fixed two or four weeks. It cannot see your refill date, your state, pharmacy backlogs, shipping, or how fast a specific clinic processes intake — real switches can be faster or much slower.
• Medication, dose, and titration are not part of the math. Two brands can share a starting price while offering different drugs, formulations, or visit cadence, and the tool will still report a zero monthly change.
• A brand with no recorded starting price is counted as $0, which can produce a misleading delta or annual figure. Always confirm the actual price on each brand's page before trusting the number.
• The score delta is our editorial opinion, not a measure of safety, effectiveness, or value, and it is unrelated to what you will pay or how well a provider fits your situation.