Rivas Medical Weight Loss Review: Price, Pros & Cons

Rivas Medical Weight Loss is a Maryland clinic chain that also treats patients by video in Maryland, Virginia and Florida. Every telehealth patient starts with a $195 initial visit. For compounded programs, that $195 also covers your first month of medication. After that, the monthly price depends on which drug your provider picks:

Rivas doesn't say whether the telehealth price changes as your dose goes up, so ask. On the brand-name route, the $100 covers your visit and dose review, and you buy the drug separately through LillyDirect, NovoCare or a local pharmacy. Insurance may help with brand-name drugs, but Rivas's own fees are cash-pay. HSA and FSA cards are accepted, and there's no contract.

If you live near one of its clinics, Rivas runs a separate in-office program in Maryland and Virginia, with 14 locations in Maryland and one in Fairfax. Here you pay by the week for an all-inclusive visit with your injection: $115 a week for semaglutide and $165 a week for tirzepatide, with 5% off a four-week package and 10% off a twelve-week package. The in-office $195 first visit works differently too. It makes you a lifetime member, and you only pay it again if a year passes without a visit.

Telehealth patients can move to in-office care at any time without a new intake. Rivas also lets you pick up medication at a clinic if a shipment doesn't arrive, or come in to learn how to inject.

Rivas is a medical practice led by Paul Rivas, MD, its CEO and medical director, and it has more than 30 years of experience in medical weight loss. Telehealth visits are with the same physician assistants and nurse practitioners who see in-office patients, and they work only for Rivas. The provider decides on your prescription during the live video visit rather than after a form review, and sees you monthly to adjust your dose.

Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide come from federally licensed 503B compounding pharmacies, which Rivas doesn't name. They ship overnight once you're cleared. Compounded medications are not FDA-approved.

• The $195 first visit stands in for your first month on a compounded program. From month two you pay the full monthly rate, so budget on that.
• Rivas doesn't publish a refund policy for telehealth programs. Ask what happens to a month you've paid for if you stop early.
• Telehealth is limited to Maryland, Virginia and Florida, and phentermine isn't prescribed by video.