Our Methodology
Every clinic in our directory is ingested from federal-registry data, refreshed against public business records, and signal-checked against its website. Clinics that lose signal are deactivated. Listings that have been claimed by their owner or flagged by a user receive a deeper editorial review.
Last updated: May 2026 · Methodology version 1.1
Why This Verification Holds Up
Most directory sites rely on what providers self-report. We don't. Every clinic in our index is checked against authoritative public data sources, our editorial process is independently reviewed, and our business itself is publicly accountable.
Medical Advisory Board
Editorial standards and methodology decisions are reviewed by a licensed physician with obesity medicine experience.
Meet our advisory board→Federal Database Cross-Check
Provider identity is verified against the NPI Registry, FDA databases, and state medical board licensure records before a clinic is listed.
BBB-Accredited Business
GLP1 Clinics is a Better Business Bureau accredited business, which means we operate under BBB’s standards for transparency, advertising honesty, and dispute resolution.
Editorial Independence
Revenue from clinic subscriptions and clearly disclosed affiliate partnerships never influences verification status, rankings, or which providers are recommended.
How We Verify Providers
We operate a two-tier process. Every clinic gets the first three steps. The fourth — full editorial re-verification — is reserved for listings that have been claimed by their owner or flagged by a user.
Active listings are confirmed as GLP-1 provider listings through manual review, NPI/provider-record checks, and code-based site audits, with a subset also website-confirmed for GLP-1 services.
NPI Registry seed
Provider records are seeded from the CMS NPPES National Provider Identifier registry, filtered to specialties relevant to weight management (internal medicine, family medicine, endocrinology, bariatric medicine, and similar). This is the federal database of every U.S. healthcare provider.
Google Places enrichment
Business hours, addresses, phone numbers, Google ratings, review counts, photos, and website URLs are pulled from the Google Places API. This is the same data source most consumer-facing business directories use.
Website signal check
Each clinic's website is fetched and scanned for explicit GLP-1 or weight-loss signals (semaglutide, tirzepatide, Wegovy, Zepbound, Ozempic, Mounjaro, and weight-management keywords). Clinics with no detectable signal are deactivated. Their records are retained internally so they can be reinstated if signal returns.
Editorial review on claim or report
When a clinic representative claims a listing, or a user reports an inaccuracy, an editor revisits the record by hand: confirming NPI, checking state medical licensure, and re-reading the clinic's current public information. Most clinics in the directory have not yet been individually re-verified at this depth.
Data Sources
Every field in the directory traces back to one of these sources. We don't fabricate provider data, and we don't guess at fields we can't verify.
CMS NPPES (National Provider Identifier registry)
The federal directory of U.S. healthcare providers. Source of NPI, legal name, primary practice address, and credentialed taxonomy/specialty codes.
npiregistry.cms.govGoogle Places API
Source of business hours, phone numbers, ratings, review counts, photos, website URLs, and operating-status signals (e.g. permanently closed).
Public clinic websites
Source of the GLP-1/weight-loss signal check, posted pricing where available, telehealth or in-person modality, and accepted-insurance language.
BBB accreditation lookup
Used to set the bbb_accredited flag that feeds the Trust Score. Pulled from the public BBB business profile when a clinic surfaces in our index.
State medical board licensure (manual)
Checked by an editor during the claim flow or in response to a user report. Not automated.
Trust Score formula
Per-clinic 0–100 composite score derived from the data sources above. See the full input list, weights, and dispute process on our Trust Score Methodology page.
Trust Score MethodologyWhen We Deactivate a Listing
We deactivate rather than delete. A deactivated clinic disappears from public listings, search, maps, and city pages. The underlying record stays in our database so the clinic can be reinstated if its situation changes.
- No detectable GLP-1 or weight-loss signal on the clinic's website (caught by the automated website signal check).
- Marked permanently closed or no longer in business by Google Places.
- Reported by a user as fraudulent, defunct, or no longer offering GLP-1 services — confirmed by editorial spot-check.
- NPI lapsed, surrendered, or no longer active in NPPES.
- Clinic representative requests removal via the claim portal or contact form.
How We Handle Unknown Fields
Most clinics don't publish every detail patients want. When a field is missing or unverifiable, we say so plainly rather than fill it in with a guess.
Pricing
Shown as a monthly range when a clinic publishes a number we can verify. Otherwise the price field is left blank or shown as "Inquire." We never invent pricing or interpolate from other clinics.
Insurance acceptance
Marked as accepting insurance only when the clinic has indicated this on its website, in Google Places, or through the claim portal. Otherwise the field is left blank rather than guessed.
Telehealth vs. in-person
Flagged as telehealth only when explicitly stated on the website or by the clinic itself. Default assumption is in-person, since most NPPES-registered clinics are physical practices.
Business hours
Displayed only when Google Places returns them. A clinic without published hours shows as "Hours not listed" rather than fabricated hours.
Medications offered
Populated from website keyword signals plus claim-portal confirmation. When unclear, we list only what we can confirm; absence does not mean the clinic won't prescribe a given medication.
Trust Score
Not displayed when fewer than 5 of the 9 inputs are populated. Those clinics show a "data incomplete" badge instead of an artificially low number.
How Rankings Work
Clinics are ranked by verification status, patient ratings, review count, and pricing transparency. No provider can pay for a higher ranking.
How We Rate Telehealth Providers
Our telehealth provider scores are computed from six weighted dimensions, led by clinical trust and compliance, using verifiable public data and independent patient reviews. The score is derived from the inputs below, not set by hand.
What we look at:
Clinical Trust & Compliance
30% of scoreLegitScript certification (pharmacy and telemedicine), US-licensed prescribers, a licensed US compounding pharmacy that tests for potency and sterility, medical oversight, and a clean regulatory record with no FDA warning letters or active enforcement. This is the safety floor and the largest single factor.
Pricing Transparency
20%All-in monthly pricing visible before signup, no hidden consultation or dose-escalation fees, honest brand-versus-compounded labeling, and clear cancellation terms. Hidden pricing is the #1 driver of negative reviews in this space.
Care Model & Clinical Support
18%Whether the platform is built around GLP-1 care or treats it as one product among many, plus ongoing dose titration, a dedicated care team, included messaging, and clinician availability for side-effect management. Distinguishes “filled my prescription” from “managed my care.”
Access & Patient Fit
12%Medication breadth across compounded and brand-name (Wegovy, Zepbound, Ozempic, Mounjaro), state coverage, insurance navigation where relevant, async and video options, and a realistic time from intake to first dose. Convenience counts here, and only here, at a deliberately capped weight.
Reputation & External Validation
10%Trustpilot stars, Google reviews, and complaint patterns from independent sources, weighted for recency, plus third-party audits and external quality reviews. Capped at 10% so review volume from older general-telehealth brands does not crowd out actual care quality.
Claims Quality & Marketing Restraint
10%How accurate and restrained a provider's own marketing is versus what we can verify: no false or implied FDA-approval claims for compounded products, no unverifiable patient counts or media logos, no aggressive outcome promises, and pricing copy that matches reality.
Trust caps
Some issues cap a provider's published rating no matter how well it scores elsewhere. Strong pricing never buys past them:
- An unresolved regulatory issue (an FDA warning letter, active enforcement, or a state medical-board action) caps the rating and pauses any recommendation until it is resolved.
- Pharmacy or provider claims we cannot verify (no confirmable LegitScript certification, licensed clinicians, or a named medical group and pharmacy) cap the rating and mark it provisional.
- Aggressive or guaranteed outcome claims cap the rating and lower the claims-quality score.
- Unclear medical-group or pharmacy details cap the rating and mark it provisional.
- A weak clinical-trust score on its own keeps a provider out of the top tier, regardless of price.
Published scores currently range from 7.8 to 8.7 on a 10-point scale. Every rating is computed from the six dimensions above rather than set by hand, and we update the underlying inputs as new data becomes available.
Our rated directory is a curated set: the online GLP-1 providers we have an affiliate partnership with, which means we earn a referral fee if a patient signs up through our link. It is not a ranking of every GLP-1 provider. Payment never changes a score or its rank. Every rated provider is scored on the same six dimensions above, affiliate-blind, and where one scores well it is because the methodology rewards what it actually does well: GLP-1 specialization, transparent all-in pricing, and dedicated patient support. Providers we are not partnered with keep an editorial write-up on the site but do not receive a numeric score.
Paid Listings
Clinics can claim and upgrade their listings for richer profile tools, unlimited lead forwarding, and reporting. Payment never changes ranking; any paid features are clearly marked.
Our verification process, patient reviews, and ranking methodology are not influenced by paid status. A clinic with a free listing that has better ratings will still outrank a paid listing with worse ratings.
How Reviews Work
Patient reviews are submitted through our review form and enter a moderation queue with four states (pending, approved, rejected, flagged). An editor checks each review for obvious spam, self-promotion, defamation, or PHI before it appears publicly. We don't edit reviews for content or sentiment — we either approve them as written, reject them with a reason, or flag them for follow-up.
How Often We Update
Honestly: there is no fixed clock. We don't claim a 90-day cycle that we don't actually run.
- Enrichment scripts (NPI ingest, Google Places refresh, website signal check) run on a recurring manual cadence as data changes — most often when we expand into a new city or after a third-party source updates.
- Individual clinic re-verification happens when a clinic representative claims the listing, when a user reports an inaccuracy, or during periodic editorial passes on a category (e.g. all clinics in a metro, all telehealth providers).
- Trust Score recompute is triggered alongside enrichment runs and after every significant data change. The current formula is version 1.1.0; see Trust Score Methodology for inputs and weights.
- Pricing and contact info are refreshed from public sources when we run enrichment. Patients should always verify directly with a clinic before a visit.
For aggregate data from our full directory, see our 2026 GLP-1 Clinic Landscape Report.
Editorial Independence
We earn revenue through clinic subscriptions and clearly disclosed affiliate relationships. These never influence our verification process, rankings, or editorial content.
How We Compare to Other Directories
GLP1 Clinics is one of four major directories patients use to find a GLP-1 provider. The Obesity Medicine Association, ASMBS, and ABOM each focus on a credentialing angle; we focus on access. For a head-to-head comparison of coverage, verification standards, and which directory fits which patient, see our GLP-1 Clinic Directories Compared guide.
Related Standards & Pages
- Editorial Standards→How we source clinical claims, fact-check pricing, handle corrections, and what we will and will not do as a directory.
- Trust Score Methodology→The full input list, weights, letter-grade bands, data-incomplete handling, and dispute process for our per-clinic 0–100 score.
- GLP-1 Clinic Directory→The directory itself — searchable by state, city, medication, or distance.
- GLP-1 Cost Guide→How we present pricing data, what counts as transparent pricing, and where the numbers come from.
- Medical Advisory Board→Our reviewing clinician, scope of review, and limitations.