Prescribing Authority
A physician licensed in your state authorizes the program and defines who may prescribe, screen and follow up.
GLP-1 Weight Loss
Find a Medical Director for GLP-1 Weight-Loss Programs
Semaglutide and tirzepatide programs are prescribing programs — they need a physician directing them, protocols written for your state, and documentation that survives a board inquiry. We place the director and build the rest around your menu.
Medical Director Oversight
What a Director Actually Signs Off for GLP-1 Weight Loss
Each of these is a decision your director owns, in writing, before it happens in your clinic.
Clearance Screenings
Who performs the initial examination — in person or by telehealth — set the way your state permits.
Titration Review
Dose ladders and stop rules approved up front, so nobody is improvising on a Friday afternoon.
Chart Review
A real review cadence on outcomes and adverse events, recorded rather than signed in arrears.
The Market
Demand Is Real, and the Data Backs It Up
Growth this fast means more competition and more regulatory attention at the same time — direction and protocols matter more as the category scales, not less.
0%
U.S. adults already using a GLP-1
0%
More who say they're interested in trying one
$0B
Projected U.S. market size by 2030
Source: PwC, "Rise of GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs and Consumer Health"; Grand View Research, GLP-1 Agonists Weight Loss Drugs Market Report
What We Set Up
Everything Behind a Compliant GLP-1 Program
A weight-loss program is not one document. It is intake, screening, dosing ladders, titration rules, side-effect management and a supply line that holds cold chain.
Standing orders covering GLP-1 prescribing and delegation
Screening criteria, contraindications and exclusion rules
Dose-escalation and titration ladders by product
Side-effect and escalation pathways your staff can follow
Consent forms and patient education specific to GLP-1s
Compounded vs FDA-approved sourcing rules for your state
Supply
Where the Product Comes From
FAQ
Questions About GLP-1 Weight Loss
Still not sure? Twenty minutes on the phone answers what a page can't.
Can a Med Spa Offer GLP-1 Weight Loss?
With a physician directing the program, protocols written to your state, and delegation set out in standing orders — yes. What each provider may do depends on your state’s supervision rules.
Compounded or Brand?
Both are workable and the rules differ. We write sourcing rules into your protocols so the front desk is never guessing which presentation is allowed.
Do I Need a DEA Registration?
Not for GLP-1s themselves. Other categories on your menu may require it; membership maps that per category.
What Happens If a Patient Stalls or Has Side Effects on Titration?
Your standing orders define the stop, hold and escalation rules per dose level, so staff have a documented answer rather than improvising a response.
Can We Offer GLP-1s Alongside Other Prescribing Categories?
Yes — the same physician oversight extends across your menu, with each category getting its own standing orders rather than one blanket authorization covering everything.
Who Is Allowed to Own a GLP-1 Business?
Can a non-physician own a GLP-1 weight-loss clinic? In most states the answer is: not the part that prescribes. Semaglutide and tirzepatide programs are the practice of medicine, and the entity that delivers them has to be owned by a physician.
That is what the corporate practice of medicine doctrine decides — and it is the single rule that shapes how your business is built. Most states hold that medical judgment belongs to licensed clinicians, so a non-physician or a general corporation may not own or control an entity that practices medicine. The MSO model is the answer the industry settled on.
The Rule
CPOM — Corporate Practice of Medicine
A doctrine in state law, not a company or a service. The professional entity — the PC — must be owned by a licensed physician, and control counts as much as ownership: who hires the clinicians, who sets the fees, who decides what gets treated.
Only a licensed physician may own the professional entity in most states
Control counts too — hiring clinicians, setting fees, directing treatment
Fee-splitting rules limit how the MSO can be paid
Enforcement is by medical boards, attorneys general, insurers and acquirers
The Structure
MSO — Management Services Organization
The company that provides everything a GLP-1 clinic needs that is not the practice of medicine, under a written management services agreement with the PC. You can own the MSO outright, whatever your license.
Owned by you, whatever your license — no physician equity required
Holds the brand, lease, staff, systems, supply and marketing
Paid a fair-market management fee, never a cut of clinical revenue
Takes no part in diagnosis, treatment or any clinical decision
How the two meet: a physician-owned PC employs the clinical team and holds the medical decisions; your MSO holds the brand, the lease, the staff, the systems and the supply; a fair-market management fee moves between them; and the line is drawn in writing where your state says it must be. Compounded GLP-1 sourcing sits on the MSO side, but the prescribing decision never does.
Watch
Where the Money Actually Goes
What This Covers
How money actually moves through a PC/MSO structure — patient revenue landing in the PC, the fixed management transfer to the MSO, MedGrid's retainer, and physician compensation — the same CPOM flow of funds covered on this page, walked through step by step.
This isn't just how we recommend running the accounts. In a state that enforces corporate practice of medicine, this exact flow is required to keep a PC structure compliant: revenue lands in the PC first, the MSO is paid a fixed, fair-market amount rather than a share of medical revenue, MedGrid is paid a fixed retainer by the MSO, and the accounts stay separate.
It's also why MedGrid only builds on a PC — never a PLLC — in every state we work in. A PLLC lets revenue flow straight into a member's account with no equivalent separation, which is exactly the structure this flow of funds is built to avoid. Why that distinction matters.
Getting It WrongMistake 01 Mistake 02 Mistake 03 Mistake 04
Four Ways GLP-1 Clinics Get Structured Badly
These are the arrangements we most often find in place when a clinic comes to us, usually built in good faith, on advice from someone who had not read the state's rules.
An LLC That Should Be a PC
The clinical entity was formed as a plain LLC owned by a non-physician. In a strict state that is the whole problem, and it usually surfaces at diligence or renewal.
A Director on a Handshake
A physician agreed to "be the medical director" with no management agreement, no delegation document and no standing orders. There is nothing to show a board.
A Fee That Looks Like a Split
The MSO takes a percentage of clinical revenue. Many states read that as fee-splitting regardless of what the contract calls it.
Protocols From a Course
Treatment protocols copied from a training weekend, never adapted to this state or signed by the director who is supposed to own them.
General information about how these structures work, not legal advice for your clinic. Your director and your counsel confirm the specifics before you treat.
Other Modalities We Cover
Peptide TherapyHRT / TRTIV Drips & HydrationInjectables & NeurotoxinsTelehealth PrescribingSkin & ResurfacingHair RestorationOzone TherapyLongevity DiagnosticsLasers & Energy DevicesExosomes & RegenerativeVitamin InjectionsSexual Wellness
Adding GLP-1 to Your Menu?
Twenty minutes tells you what direction costs in your state, what has to be on file before the first patient, and how fast you can start.