Consumer telehealth · Cash-pay care marketplace
Sesame
Sesame is a cash-pay healthcare marketplace with posted prices for telehealth and in-person visits, labs, and related services. It is not an employer-contracted obesity clinic platform.
Strong fit
- Cash-pay patients who want transparent visit, lab, and prescription prices without insurance navigation
- Consumers comparing marketplace telehealth and in-person cash-pay visits for primary and specialty care
- Buyers evaluating GLP-1 and routine care access through a price-posted marketplace rather than a single-brand clinic
Weak fit
- Patients who must stay in-network for employer insurance and cannot use cash-pay pathways
- Enterprises needing a contracted obesity outcomes program with PBM integration (see Calibrate)
- Buyers seeking a provider-facing EHR rather than a consumer marketplace
Bottom line
Sesame earns a Conditional as a cash-pay healthcare marketplace for visits, labs, imaging, and prescriptions with posted prices. Co-founder and CEO David Goldhill's company sits in a rough mid-teens to mid-twenties millions revenue band on common third-party estimates, with under 100 employees, well inside the hard cap. The modality is marketplace access, not a single closed obesity clinic, which is why it sits on our weight-care-adjacent consumer board for shoppers comparing cash-pay paths to Found or GobyMeds. Quality varies by marketplace clinician; that variance is the caveat. Score reflects useful price transparency with Conditional confidence versus tightly branded clinical obesity programs like Form Health.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
Sesame is a New York cash-pay healthcare marketplace led by co-founder and CEO David Goldhill. Patients browse posted prices for telehealth and in-person visits, labs, and related services instead of submitting insurance claims for those encounters.
It is a consumer care marketplace, not a health-system EHR and not an employer-contracted obesity clinic. Compare Form Health or Calibrate when the job is longitudinal obesity care with benefits integration, and GobyMeds or Henry Meds when the only job is cash-pay GLP-1 access.
Score is Conditional because price transparency is strong while clinical continuity depends on which marketplace clinician the patient picks.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of use |
|---|---|---|
| Form Health | 7.5 | 7.3 |
| Found | 7.4 | 7.2 |
| Calibrate | 7.3 | 7.1 |
| Eden | 7.3 | 7.2 |
| Fridays | 7.1 | 7.0 |
| Mochi Health | 7.0 | 6.6 |
| Nu Image Medical | 6.8 | 6.5 |
| Sesame | 6.8 | 6.7 |
| Henry Meds | 6.7 | 6.3 |
| GobyMeds | 6.6 | 6.5 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Cash-pay marketplace with posted prices for visits, labs, and services; membership options may apply; medication priced separately. |
| What usually drives cost | Visit type, clinician, labs/imaging, medications, and any membership tier. |
| What to ask in diligence | Total cash price for the visit plus expected medication cost for your clinical need. |
| Published pricing | Visit and service prices are posted on sesamecare.com; medication prices vary by pharmacy pathway. |
Prerequisites for purchase
| Need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What you need to get Sesame to function | |
| Cash-pay expectation set with the patient | Insurance assumptions cause abandoned carts. |
| Clinical need matched to marketplace visit type | Wrong visit type wastes money. |
| Medication pathway understood before booking | Visit without Rx access frustrates. |
| Lab and imaging follow-up plan | Results without a plan stall care. |
| Receipt and HSA documentation saved | Reimbursement fails without records. |
| What will maximize your value | |
| Compare posted prices before booking | Impulse booking loses the product point. |
| Confirm clinician license state match | Cross-state gaps cancel visits. |
| Track total cash outlay including meds | Visit price alone misleads. |
| Deal-breakers | |
| Must use in-network insurance only | |
| Need employer obesity outcomes contract | |
| Need a provider EHR | |
Value creation time frame
| # | Stage | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Browse and book | same day to 1 week |
| 2 | Complete visit and follow-ups | 1-3 weeks |
| 3 | Medication continuity | ongoing |
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category actually buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.