The most-hidden number in the category
Almost no white-label telehealth platform publishes pricing. The two real exceptions, Cuvo at roughly $25 per completed consult with 0% medication markup, and Qualiphy at $27.99 for pay-as-you-go exams, get quoted everywhere precisely because they are the only public anchors in the category. Everyone else says "talk to sales," which is not villainy, deals genuinely vary by volume, states, and scope, but it does shift all the modeling work onto you.
This post does that work once. Four models, what each optimizes for, the hidden costs that live outside the headline number, and a worksheet that converts any quote into cost per patient per month, the only unit that lets you compare a per-consult vendor against a SaaS vendor against a revenue share. It pairs with the honest platform comparison from last week: that post tells you who to shortlist, this one tells you what the shortlist will cost.
The four pricing models
| Model | How it charges | Published examples | Wins when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per-consult | Fixed fee per completed visit | Cuvo ~$25/consult; Qualiphy $27.99/exam | Volume is small or uncertain | The definition of "completed"; the rate at 10x volume |
| Per-member-per-month | Fee per active patient per month | Rarely published | Subscription programs with strong retention | The definition of "active"; minimum member counts |
| Revenue share | Percentage of program revenue | Not published | You are cash-poor and pre-revenue | The effective cost at scale; audit and exit rights |
| SaaS plus usage | Base platform fee plus per-use charges | Mostly quote-only | Volume is predictable and growing | Usage line items multiplying; per-seat pricing |
Per-consult is the cleanest alignment at launch: you pay when care happens. Its trap is success, the rate that was generous at 100 consults a month is a tax at 3,000, so negotiate the volume curve before you need it. PMPM matches subscription economics but punishes you for patients who linger in "active" without paying. Revenue share is seductive with no cash and brutal with traction; it is the model most likely to be triple the alternatives by month 18. SaaS plus usage is the most predictable and the most padded, because each usage line, messages, storage, seats, API calls, is a place for margin to hide.
The five hidden costs
Implementation fees. One-time setup ranging from zero to five figures, often surfaced after the pricing conversation. Ask for it in the first quote, itemized.
Integration fees. The EHR, lab, or analytics connection that was a logo on the website turns out to be a professional services project. Ask which integrations are live in production today and what any new one costs.
Provider network minimums. Platforms that supply clinicians often carry monthly clinical minimums regardless of your volume, reasonable for them, painful for a seasonal or early-stage program. Ask what you owe in a zero-patient month.
Pharmacy markups. The platform fee looks small because the margin lives in the medication price. Ask for the pharmacy price list next to any wholesale reference you can get, and whether you are free to route to your own pharmacy partner, a topic we covered in choosing a compounding pharmacy.
Data egress. The exit fee: charges or long timelines to export your own patients, charts, and subscription records when you leave. The full question list lives in data ownership questions to ask before choosing a platform. A platform that hesitates here is quoting you the price of being trapped.
The TCO worksheet
Model a 12-month total cost of ownership in five steps. The numbers below are illustrative arithmetic, not benchmarks: a program doing 300 new patients a month at $149 per month, averaging four months of retention, roughly 1,200 active members at steady state.
- Forecast volume. New patients, active members by month, and total clinical touches including refill reviews, not just initial consults.
- Apply the model. Per-consult at $25 with initial plus quarterly reviews lands around $150,000 for the year. An illustrative SaaS deal at $2,500 per month plus $8 per consult lands near $78,000. A 10% revenue share on the same program costs about $17,900 in a month at steady state, over $180,000 annualized, the "cheap" model became the expensive one.
- Add one-time costs. Implementation, integrations, migration of any existing patients.
- Add per-order deltas. If medications route through the platform, price the markup against your alternative and multiply by annual order volume; this line quietly exceeds the platform fee in many programs.
- Add the exit. Egress fees and the rebuild cost if you leave in month 24. A cheap platform with an expensive exit is not cheap.
Divide each total by patient-months served and you get cost per patient per month, one number per vendor, finally comparable. Then judge it against margin, not against the other vendors: the framework in evaluating platform ROI without vanity metrics is the second half of this worksheet. Full launch context, everything beyond the platform line, is in the line-item launch budget.
When each model wins, and our approach
Per-consult wins for launches and uncertain volume: pay for care that happens, keep fixed costs near zero, renegotiate at scale. PMPM wins for retention-strong subscription programs where active members and revenue move together. Revenue share wins only when cash is the binding constraint and you have a contractual path out of it. SaaS plus usage wins once volume is predictable, it is usually the lowest cost per patient at scale, provided the usage lines are capped and the integration list is priced up front.
Our approach, stated plainly: Turbopills is in private beta and we quote per program, which puts us in the quote-only column of our own comparison table. Two commitments make that honest rather than evasive. Every quote is itemized, platform, implementation, integrations, and per-use lines visible before signature, so the worksheet above works on us. And your data is never behind an egress fee: storefront, intake, billing, pharmacy, and portal run as one platform, and everything in it stays reachable through the GraphQL API, because we would rather be kept by switching costs we earn than by ones we invoice.
FAQ
How much does a white-label telehealth platform cost? Most vendors quote per program and publish nothing. The public reference points are Cuvo at roughly $25 per completed consult with 0% medication markup and Qualiphy at $27.99 per pay-as-you-go exam; SaaS-based deals add a monthly platform fee plus usage. Convert any quote to cost per patient per month at your projected volume before comparing vendors.
What is the best pricing model for a new telehealth brand? Per-consult pricing usually wins at launch because cost tracks actual care and fixed costs stay near zero. As volume becomes predictable, SaaS plus usage typically becomes cheaper per patient, so negotiate the crossover before you reach it. Revenue share should be a bridge, not a permanent structure.
What hidden costs should I check in a telehealth platform contract? Five recur: one-time implementation fees, per-integration professional services charges, provider network monthly minimums, pharmacy markups embedded in medication prices, and data egress fees at exit. Ask for each in writing with the first quote; the reaction is itself diligence data.
Why do telehealth platforms hide their pricing? Partly because deals genuinely vary with volume, states, and scope, and partly because opacity favors the vendor in negotiation. Treat quote-only as normal but model it aggressively: a vendor unwilling to itemize implementation, usage, and exit costs is telling you where the surprises live.