Lemonaid Health

Lemonaid Health Reviews - Is It Right For You?

By HighYa Research Team

Updated on: Jun 24, 2019

Lemonaid Health is an online doctor’s office and pharmacy that claims to offer convenient, affordable care instantly, anywhere in the United States.

Unlike a traditional doctor’s office, Lemonaid Health offers patients same-day consultations with a U.S.-based doctor or nurse practitioner either over live video or convenient messaging.

The company behind Lemonaid Health is LMND Medical Group, Inc. They are based out of San Francisco, CA, and were co-founded in 2013 by President Ian Van Every, Chief Medical Officer Jason Hwang, and CEO Paul Johnson.

There’s a lot to be said about receiving great medical care at a price you can afford, especially given the fact that more than 17 percent of American children and adults remain uninsured.

And when you add that Lemonaid can help you save time spent sitting in a waiting room or standing in a pharmacy line, it might seem like a no-brainer, especially when it comes to regular medications for things like birth control, hair loss, cholesterol, and acne, to name just a few.

In this review, we’ll help you weigh all the facts so you can make a more empowered decision before scheduling an online visit with Lemonaid Health.

How Does Lemonaid Health Work?

Lemonaid’s services can be split into three categories: online consultations with a doctor or nurse practitioner, prescription delivery and same-day lab tests.

To use Lemonaid, you’ll click the service you need from the home page, and then click Start Visit when you’re ready to begin.

You’ll then need to answer a few health questions (e.g., medical history, symptoms, current medications, allergies, etc.), provide a selfie and photo ID (whether to verify identity or to make a visual diagnosis), and allow Lemonaid to authorize a $25 charge for the consultation on a credit card to submit your visit.

In some instances, state laws may require you to complete a live video consultation instead of providing a picture and photo ID in order to provide an accurate diagnosis.

After submitting your online visit request, Lemonaid will review it and respond within two hours during business hours, which consists of the following hours:

• Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST
• Saturday to Sunday: 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. PST

If you submit your request outside of business hours, the company says they’ll respond within 24 hours.

If a live video consultation is required, you’ll be directed to complete your video consultation with one of their providers immediately after you submit your visit.

If your consultation results in you being a candidate for a prescription, Lemonaid provides free shipping for prescriptions pertaining to the conditions we’ll list in the next section. If you prefer to pick up your medication at a pharmacy, Lemonaid allows you to use your insurance and send the prescription to any U.S.-based pharmacy.

What Conditions and Prescriptions Can Lemonaid Health Diagnose and Provide?

The easiest way to understand the kind of consultations and prescriptions the company offers is to list a few examples of conditions they provide consultation for and the medications that coincide with those conditions:

Depression and Anxiety

Lemonaid can help individuals aged 25-60 get treatment. This service requires a video consultation with a doctor or nurse practitioner and their treatment plan is a $95-per-month subscription that includes unlimited messaging with a doctor and the necessary medication.

Erectile Dysfunction

Lemonaid can help men ages 25 to 72. Prescriptions include varying doses of sildenafil, Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra.

Genital Herpes and Cold Sores

As long as this isn’t your first outbreak, Lemonaid can prescribe anti-viral medications like Acyclovir, Valacyclovir and Famciclovir for immediate outbreaks or daily prevention of genital herpes or oral cold sore outbreaks.

Birth Control

Lemonaid gives women ages 18-49 access to the birth control pill, patch or ring. They can deliver the birth control pill for $15 per month.

Hair Loss

Lemonaid can help men ages 18-74. They can prescribe generic finasteride 1mg for the treatment of male pattern baldness.

Other conditions for which Lemonaid can provide consultations and prescriptions include premature ejaculation, acne, smoking cessation, UTIs, sinus infections, the flu, acid reflux and high cholesterol.

Which Lab Tests Can You Order Through Lemonaid Health?

Earlier we mentioned that your video consultation, while not needed in every case, can lead to a prescription. The doctor or nurse practitioner with whom you speak can also order labs for you. Lemonaid has negotiated same-day lab testing through Quest Diagnostics, the largest laboratory company in the US! In most instances, an appointment isn’t required (although helpful), and you can find a location near you on Quest’s website.

After you complete testing, Lemonaid will receive your results and confidentially share them with you via message in your Lemonaid account, at which point you can ask any questions. You can also download a PDF of your results from the MyQuest website.

STD Testing

This urine test will let you know if you have common bacterial STDs like chlamydia and gonorrhea. If the test comes back positive for chlamydia, Lemonaid can provide an antibiotic prescription treatment option. Lemonaid cannot provide online gonorrhea treatment, as that requires treatment that can only be provided in-person.

A1C Testing

Provides hemoglobin A1C blood sugar measurements (average blood sugar over the last three months) that could help you identify if you have diabetes or prediabetes. You don’t need to fast (stop eating) before this lab test.

Blood Type Testing

Provides a convenient, simple way of finding out what blood type you have. Lemonaid orders the same blood type test ordered by all doctor offices, which will let you know if you’re in blood group A, B, AB, or O, and if you’re Rh negative or positive. You don’t need to fast (stop eating) beforehand.

Cholesterol Testing

Provides cholesterol measurements that could help identify your risk of having a heart attack over the next 10 years. Lemonaid can prescribe a 90-day supply of statins following a lab test if appropriate. You need to fast (stop eating) before this lab test.

Hypothyroidism Testing

Lemonaid is unable to diagnose hypothyroidism online. To get thyroid medication from Lemonaid, you need to have been diagnosed with low thyroid already. Lemonaid can prescribe levothyroxine and their pharmacy can ship thyroid treatment directly to your door.

How Much Does Lemonaid Health Cost?

As we mentioned earlier, the service charges a $25 visit fee for a doctor or nurse practitioner’s evaluation, which you can pay on their website or within the app using a credit or debit card.

The cost of medications is additional and will vary depending on the pharmacy that dispenses the medication. We recommend calling the pharmacy you wish to use to obtain a price quote if you’d like to pick up your medication.

Also, Lemonaid Pharmacy provides two-day shipping of your medications to your home for free. Lemonaid offers discounts on medication pricing if you sign up for monthly refills. Refill frequency is customizable and you can cancel anytime.

The company’s pharmacy pricing is straightforward. Here are a couple of examples of how much they charge for common medications:

• Sildenafil 20 mg: $2 per pill
• Sildenafil 50 mg: $34 per pill
• Sildenafil 100 mg: $34 per pill
• Viagra 50 mg: $85 per pill
• Viagra 100 mg: $85 per pill
• Cialis Daily (5 mg): $8 per pill
• Cialis 5 mg: $11 per pill
• Cialis 10 mg: $22 per pill
• Cialis 20 mg: $44 per pill
• Finasteride: $1 per pill
• Birth Control Pill: $45 for a three-month supply
• Zyban: $45 for a three-month supply
• Cold sore: $50 for a 90-day supply
• Genital herpes: $50 for a 90-day supply
• Hypothyroidism: $27 for a one-month supply
• Depression & Anxiety: $95 subscription fee for ongoing care and medication

While Lemonaid’s $25 consultation fee is on par with many health care plans, their prescriptions are, in many cases far more expensive than what you’d pay using an online prescription service like Blink Health.

Here is a quick comparison table showing the cost to purchase and ship to your home several popular medications listed above:

As you can see, Blink Health is a far cheaper option for prescriptions when it comes to Sildenafil but Lemonaid Health provides better prices for Cialis and Zyban. Because there seems to be some variation in pricing depending on which drug you buy, we suggest checking online pharmacy alternatives before committing to the prices Lemonaid gives you.

Keep in mind, though, that these alternative sites don’t provide doctor’s consultations but rather function as a pharmacy discount card for a prescription that’s already been sent out by your doctor.

As for lab fees, here is what the five labs will cost you through Lemonaid:

• STD: $28.16
• A1C: $34.16
• Cholesterol: $42.81
• Blood Type: $36.11
• Hypothyroidism: $30.50

If Lemonaid doesn’t think online care is appropriate, they’ll provide a full refund.

What Can We Learn From Lemonaid Health Patient Reviews?

Between Google Play and iTunes, we encountered more than 2,800 customer reviews for the Lemonaid Health app at the time of publishing, who had cumulatively given it an average rating of about 4.8 stars.

Common compliments related to service speed, ease of use, and affordability, while the relatively few complaints frequently indicated that the service wasn’t able to meet their needs.

Are There Other Telehealth Apps Like Lemonaid?

Telemedicine—also referred to as telehealth—simply involves using telecommunications technology (e.g., video, online chat, email, phone calls, etc.) to help remotely diagnose and treat patients. And it’s growing rapidly.

According to Statista, only about 350,000 patients used the technology in 2013, although this number is projected to exceed seven million by the end of 2018. That’s a 2,000 percent increase in just five years.

Because of this rapid growth, several companies have entered the market to meet the demand. Some, such as Teladoc, provide an expansive range of services, including mental and sexual health, pediatrician services, and dermatology, while others provide niche-oriented medical support, such as Hims and Roman ED Meds (basic men’s health prescriptions) and Nurx (birth control medications).

Here were some of the most popular app-based options at the time of our research, which (mostly) combined quick, affordable online visits for common conditions, prescription services, lab tests, and app functionality:

As you’re trying to choose the right online health site for you, we want to point out that your decision will most likely take place via the following criteria:

• Availability in your state
• Treatment/services offered
• Price
• Online customer feedback

For example, of the options above, Express Virtual Care offered their services in the fewest number of states, while Amwell was the only nationwide provider. However, Amwell had the highest visit cost, while HeyDoctor was the lowest at (usually) less than $20.

At $25 per visit, Lemonaid’s fees came in a close second, while they were also the only one who offered delivery to your door for certain medications. Many of their lab prices were also well under $10.

While the telemedicine/telehealth industry is in its infancy, the American Hospital Association reports that it’s proven to be a cost-effective method of providing essential healthcare services to a broader group of consumers—including the huge percentage of the American population without health insurance.

In this way, telemedicine companies like Lemonaid are helping to make many aspects of healthcare more affordable and accessible, which means that you can approach choosing the best one as you would many other products and services.

Given these criteria, along with their almost wholly positive online customer reputation and their refund guarantee (if they can’t provide you with a prescription), you might not have much more to lose than a few minutes of time by giving Lemonaid Health a try.

As for who we think this site is good for, we believe it’s an excellent fit for several different types of people. First, if you don’t have insurance, Lemonaid is a fantastic fit. The cash price you’ll pay for a primary care doctor visit will most likely be at least three times as expensive as the $25 you’d pay for a Lemonaid consultation.

Also, the lab prices you’ll pay will most likely be cheaper than what you’d pay out of pocket without insurance.

On that note, we also think the site is a good fit for someone who deals with issues Lemonaid’s consultations address that would normally require a visit to a specialist. Specialist co-pays are usually higher than $25.

This is especially true for their monthly depression and anxiety consultations, as you’d be hard-pressed to find a month of therapy sessions that would cost less than $95 per month.