Join Midi vs. Choose Joi
If you are looking for personalized care and meeting with an actual HRT doctor one-on-one is important to you, keep reading.
There are lots of us who want and enjoy talking to people; including a real human being to begin our journey of Hormone Replacement Therapy.
Most of the providers I've reviewed, do all their communication via text/email messaging and via their patient portal, including prescribing medications. This also means, that prospective patients aren't given an opportunity to meet with a doc one-on-one prior to Hormone Therapy being prescribed or to answer questions. That's not the case with Choose Joi and Join Midi Hormone Replacement.
Hormone Doctor
Both Joi and Midi practice in all 50-states and allow for an initial 30-minute telehealth appointment. When was the last time your doctor allowed a full 30-minutes to answer your questions and ensure you understood the care they were recommending? Probably never.
As part of their standard of care, both of these companies make a 30-minute consultation via telehealth one of the first steps and priority once you register and create a new patient account.
For many of us, we want and need this time to get to know our provider, ask questions and learn how the future of our care will be managed. You can rest assured that your Joi certified Clinician as well as your Midi HRT specialist are there to walk you through how Hormone Replacement Therapy works and what to expect.
Personally, I really appreciate this white-glove care as I'm one of those people who wants to have a relationship with my HRT doctor. I am currently using Joi Hormone Replacement and a Joi Weight Loss product. I really appreciated the time I had with Dr. Brooke on my first appointment.
At my initial appointment with Dr. Brooke, we discussed the current HRT I was taking. She helped me understand how those meds impacted the level of hormones in my blood. In her opinion, my levels were still quite low, and she recommended that we increase the dosage of estrogen, progesterone and then we also discussed the benefit of adding testosterone to my HR therapy.
At the end of my Joi Women's Health appointment, I also mentioned that I still had 12-15 pounds I wanted to lose. Dr. Brooke went on to help me understand how semaglutide added to my HRT could be exactly "what the doctor ordered" to lose those last pesky pounds. She was right, I've lost 10 pounds since I started the semaglutide.
Does Joi or Midi accept Insurance?
Joi Women's Health does accept insurance for FDA prescriptions. Most services that include a Joi Clinician you'll be paying for out of pocket. For Hormone Replacement Therapy, they'll first want you to go to their website and schedule a set of labs, they offer three options. The cost of the labs also includes the initial consultation fee, so that's a plus. You'll have the data from the labs and no additional cost for the initial visit.
Midi also accepts insurance, check their website to see if yours is listed. They even go as far as listing several big-name insurance companies that they work with. Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Sheild, United HealthCare, Aetna, Healthnet just to name a few.
When I became a Midi patient, my insurance wasn't listed, so I did as suggested, I called my insurance company. They informed me that since Midi was 'out of network' for me, so the $250 consult fee would go toward my out of network deductible. They recommended that I also call my prescription company to inquire as to if the meds would be covered.
Pre-Testing with Joi or Midi
Joi requires pre-testing bloodwork before you are able to schedule your first 1:1 with an HRT Doctor. Midi, does it a bit different. They want to meet with you first and then depending on your medical history and symptoms, they may ask you to complete some bloodwork or even imaging depending on your situation and what you are coming to them for.
Complete Hormone Panel - $149
Hormone + Metabolic + Thyroid Panel - $399
Comprehensive Panel - $699
Much like a traditional doctor's office that accepts insurance, Midi doesn't post any pricing on their website. You'll want to communicate with Midi Health if you learn bloodwork is required to ensure it will be covered by insurance.
Breast Cancer and HRT
Are you Breast Cancer Survivor or have Breast Cancer in your family History? Most of the companies that offer HRT won't touch you with a 10' pole if you've had breast cancer. There are new studies coming out every day around whether some women would benefit from HRT after some types of breast cancers, specifically if cancer treatments put you into early menopause.
However, Midi is the exception to this rule. I am impressed with their commitment to helping women who have had breast cancer or have a family history. So many women get turned away when this fact is brought into the conversation. I commend Midi for being a leader in the industry and understanding that cancer brings its own set of menopause issues that need to be addressed.
Joi and Midi Membership Fees and Other Costs
Once you complete the Joi required the bloodwork, you'll meet with your HRT doc one-one-one. All prescriptions are filled with 3-months' worth of product either from their compounding pharmacy or if you choose they can send your prescriptions to your local pharmacy. If you choose to use Joi's partner pharmacy, the prices for meds are as follows:
· Testosterone - $59-$69/Month
· Estrogen $59-$69/Month
· Vaginal Estrogen $ 49-$59/Month
· Progesterone - $54-$69/Month
You can call me a geek, but I really like the idea of labs and being able to see my hormone levels. Personally, I needed the labs to validate the fact that HRT wasn't me "thinking" I needed it, but proof that I actually did.
On the other hand, Join Midi charges $250 for the initial appointment with each follow-up being $120-$250 depending on the length of the appointment. With insurance, it's up to your coverage, co-pay and deductible that will determine your personal out of pocket. They advertise on their site that most prescriptions are covered by insurance, so that will vary again, depending on your insurance coverage.
Is Choose Joi and Join Midi Legit?
Yes, they are both legitimate companies who have a great process in place to help you learn your levels, start HRT and then on-going care and management. HRT isn't a one and done prescription. Both of these providers specialize in not only that initial appointment but in your future care and health as you breeze your way through perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause.
For me, the one-on-one telehealth appointment is not something I'd be willing to sacrifice to save a few bucks. If you feel the same way, then I'd say you should check out both of their websites to further determine which one you may want to try.
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