Acquisition Cost
Revenue Model
Your Numbers
Model Comparison
The Math
Most telehealth operators use one of three patient revenue models. The simulator compares all three against your CAC so you can see exactly which one works at your acquisition cost.
What counts as a good ratio?
A 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio is a common planning heuristic, not a universal benchmark. The right threshold depends on contribution margin, retention, refunds, fulfillment costs, and cash constraints. Use your own cohort economics.
Public filings can show acquisition spending and net subscriber growth without disclosing the gross new-patient count needed to calculate CAC. The Hims filings are one example: spending divided by net growth is not customer acquisition cost. See the calculation and its limits.
Visit fee vs. subscription vs. bundled
A visit-only model caps your LTV at the single visit price, which almost never clears a 3:1 ratio at realistic CAC. Subscription-only LTV compounds with retention, but the payback period can be painfully long if monthly revenue is low. The bundled model, where the visit fee covers a meaningful portion of CAC upfront while the subscription extends LTV over time, is how most profitable operators structure their offers.
Payback period matters as much as LTV:CAC
If your payback period exceeds your average retention, you are losing money on every patient even if your LTV:CAC ratio looks fine on paper. A 6-month payback on a 5-month average retention is a cash-flow problem regardless of how the ratio models out at month 24.
Common Questions
What is a good LTV:CAC ratio for telehealth?
A 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio is a common planning heuristic, not a universal benchmark. The right threshold depends on contribution margin, retention, refunds, fulfillment costs, and cash constraints. Use your own cohort economics.
How much does it cost to acquire a telehealth patient?
Calculate CAC from attributable acquisition spending divided by gross new patients acquired within the same scope and period. Do not divide spending by net subscriber growth, which combines additions and departures and can make the result look like CAC when it is not.
Visit fee vs. subscription: which drives more LTV?
Subscription can produce more LTV than a single visit when patients remain long enough and the subscription has positive contribution margin. A bundled model adds the visit fee to subscription revenue. Use actual retention and margin rather than assuming one model always wins.
How do you calculate patient payback period?
A simple revenue payback estimate is CAC divided by monthly subscription revenue. A more useful operating calculation uses monthly contribution profit instead of revenue. If payback exceeds average retention, the acquisition economics do not recover within the observed patient lifetime.
Does this apply to GLP-1 / weight care specifically?
Yes. Weight-care operators can model their own acquisition cost, visit revenue, subscription revenue, and retention here. Because medication availability, pricing, fulfillment costs, and retention can change, use current first-party inputs rather than an industry average.
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