Shapely Review: Price, Pros & Cons

Shapely is a weight-loss practice built mainly around insurance. It's in network with Medicare and most PPO plans, including Aetna, Blue Shield and United, and it bills your visits with its providers and dietitians to your plan. You pay your usual cost-sharing, such as copays and deductibles.

There's also a self-pay plan for people without coverage. Its membership is $99 a month, with $50 off the first month. That fee covers telehealth visits and prescriptions. It doesn't include medication or lab work.

Either way, the membership is separate from the drug. Insured members still pay a membership fee for the app, chat with the care team, education, tracking tools and help finding medication at local pharmacies. The first month of that membership is $9 when you pay with insurance. Shapely doesn't print what it costs after that, so ask before you join.

For insured members, Shapely handles the coverage paperwork for drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. It says commercial plans typically charge a copay of about $25 a month, though some plans charge more. Medicare covers these drugs only for people with diabetes, cardiovascular disease or obstructive sleep apnea.

If your insurance won't pay, Shapely can steer you to the drugmakers' own self-pay programs, NovoCare for Wegovy and LillyDirect for Zepbound. When a provider decides a compounded drug is appropriate, it's cash pay only: compounded semaglutide starts at $99 a month and compounded tirzepatide at $166 a month. Those are on top of the $99 membership, so the starting monthly total for self-pay semaglutide is about $198.

The prescribing menu is broad: Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic, Wegovy and the Wegovy pill, the Foundayo pill, and Contrave.

You start with a two-minute coverage check, where Shapely verifies your insurance and shows what's included. Then you meet an assigned provider by video. Insured members get monthly video visits with a weight-loss provider, monthly dietitian visits, unlimited chat in the app, and a cellular smart scale (not available with Aetna or Cigna as your primary insurance).

Labs are strongly recommended before starting most medications. Shapely will order them or accept results from the past six months. Insurance usually covers them. Without insurance, they're a flat $75 at a Labcorp location.

Shapely's founder is Dr. Justin Zaghi, and his name comes up again and again in the patient stories on the site.

• Check your state. Shapely serves adults in California, Florida, New York and Texas only, though it says more states are coming.
• Ask about canceling. Shapely doesn't publish its cancellation or refund terms on the site, so ask how to stop the membership before you join.
• Count both bills. On self-pay, the membership and the medication are charged separately.

Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are not FDA-approved.