Telehealth Consent & Patient Information

1. What Telehealth Means

Telehealth allows you to receive medical care from a clinician through secure electronic communication when you and the clinician are in different locations.

Telehealth may include:

• Video visits
• Audio communication when appropriate
• Secure patient portal messages
• Electronic intake forms
• Digital consent forms
• Prescription management
• Lab coordination
• Follow-up communication
• Care plan updates

Telehealth is intended to make care more accessible and convenient, but it also has limits. A telehealth visit may not allow the same physical examination, testing, imaging, or immediate evaluation available in an in-person medical setting.

2. Official Consent Is Completed Through Athena

Sippa uses Athena for patient intake, scheduling, consent forms, patient communications, and related patient workflows.

Before your first visit, you may be asked to complete forms and sign the official Telehealth Consent through Athena. That consent may include additional details about:

• The nature of telehealth
• Benefits and risks
• Privacy and security
• Technology limitations
• Patient responsibilities
• Follow-up care
• Emergency care limits
• Prescriptions, labs, and pharmacy choice
• Communication expectations

3. Benefits of Telehealth

Telehealth may allow you to:

• Meet with a clinician from home or another private location
• Discuss symptoms, history, goals, and treatment options
• Receive care without a waiting room
• Review labs when clinically appropriate
• Discuss medications when clinically appropriate
• Coordinate prescriptions and pharmacy options
• Receive follow-up care and plan adjustments over time

Telehealth can be useful for many types of midlife and menopause medical care, but it is not right for every situation.

4. Limits and Risks of Telehealth

Telehealth has limitations and risks, including:

• A clinician may not be able to perform a complete physical examination.
• Some symptoms may require in-person care, urgent care, emergency care, imaging, labs, or specialist evaluation.
• Technology may fail, disconnect, delay communication, or affect visit quality.
• Internet, phone, audio, or video problems may interfere with care.
• Electronic communications may carry privacy or security risks.
• Prescriptions, labs, or treatment plans may not be appropriate for every patient.
• A clinician may decide that telehealth is not appropriate for your needs.

If Sippa determines that your symptoms, history, location, or medical needs require in-person care or emergency evaluation, we may direct you to another appropriate care setting.

5. No Emergency Care

Sippa does not provide emergency care through telehealth, Athena, email, SMS/text messaging, website forms, patient portal messages, or any other non-emergency communication channel.

Do not use Sippa telehealth services for urgent or emergency medical needs.

Examples of urgent or emergency concerns may include:

• Chest pain
• Trouble breathing
• Severe allergic reaction
• Signs of stroke
• Severe abdominal pain
• Fainting or loss of consciousness
• Severe bleeding
• Suicidal thoughts or risk of self-harm
• Any symptom that feels life-threatening or urgent

If you are unsure whether something is an emergency, seek immediate medical care.

6. Your Location and Identity

Before or during a telehealth encounter, Sippa may ask you to confirm your identity and your physical location.

This matters because telehealth care depends on state licensure, patient location, applicable law, clinical appropriateness, and emergency planning.

At launch, Sippa serves eligible adult patients located in Utah. You must be physically located in a state where Sippa is authorized to provide care at the time of the telehealth encounter.

If you are outside Sippa’s service area, Sippa may not be able to provide medical care.

7. Patient Responsibilities

To receive safe and appropriate telehealth care, you are responsible for:

• Providing accurate and complete information
• Confirming your identity and physical location when asked
• Sharing your symptoms, medical history, medications, allergies, and relevant health information
• Telling your clinician about pregnancy, possible pregnancy, cancer history, blood clot history, cardiovascular history, liver or kidney problems, medication interactions, or other relevant risks
• Completing requested forms and consents
• Completing labs when clinically appropriate
• Following care instructions
• Asking questions if you do not understand your care plan
• Seeking urgent or emergency care when needed
• Using Athena or other approved communication channels as directed
• Keeping your login credentials and patient portal access secure

Incomplete or inaccurate information may affect the safety, quality, or appropriateness of care.

8. Privacy and Security

Sippa takes privacy seriously and uses systems intended to support secure patient care and communication.

Sippa uses Athena as its patient management system. Patient intake, scheduling, forms, consents, visit-related information, patient portal messages, and certain care communications may occur through Athena.

However, no electronic system is completely secure. Telehealth may involve privacy and security risks, including technical failures, unauthorized access, lost or stolen devices, insecure networks, or communication errors.

You can help protect your privacy by:

• Taking visits from a private location
• Using a secure internet connection when possible
• Protecting your Athena login credentials
• Avoiding public Wi-Fi for sensitive communications when possible
• Not sharing your patient portal access with others
• Avoiding sensitive medical details in ordinary email or SMS/text unless specifically directed

Protected health information is addressed in Sippa’s Notice of Privacy Practices. Website, analytics, advertising, email, SMS/text, and digital privacy are addressed in Sippa’s Privacy Policy.

9. Prescriptions and Labs

Sippa may prescribe medications or order labs when clinically appropriate.

Telehealth does not guarantee that you will receive a prescription, lab order, specific medication, refill, or dosage change.

Treatment decisions depend on your symptoms, health history, medications, allergies, risk factors, labs when appropriate, clinical judgment, applicable law, and available services.

Medications discussed through Sippa may include, when clinically appropriate:

• Hormone therapy
• Vaginal estradiol
• Testosterone or DHEA
• GLP-1 medications
• Semaglutide or tirzepatide
• Metformin
• Sleep support
• Skin or hair prescriptions
• Other treatment options based on clinical need

Not every medication is appropriate for every patient.

10. Pharmacy Choice

When medication is prescribed, Sippa will not require you to use only one specific pharmacy.

Depending on the medication, clinical needs, pricing, availability, insurance, cash-pay options, and pharmacy capabilities, prescriptions may be routed through:

• A local pharmacy
• An insurance pharmacy
• A compounding pharmacy
• A cash-pay pharmacy option
• Another pharmacy pathway available to you

Sippa may help explain available pharmacy options, but third-party pharmacies control their own pricing, processing, fulfillment, shipping, availability, and insurance decisions.

11. Follow-Up Care

Telehealth care may require follow-up.

Follow-up may include:

• Additional visits
• Patient portal messages
• Lab review
• Medication adjustments
• Refill review
• Safety monitoring
• Pharmacy coordination
• Referral to in-person care or another clinician when appropriate

Sippa will provide a way for patients to contact the care team for follow-up related to Sippa services.

Sippa may recommend that you seek in-person care, urgent care, emergency care, or specialist evaluation when clinically appropriate.

12. Access to Records

Patient records may be available through Athena or by request, subject to applicable law and Sippa’s policies.

You may have rights to access, request correction of, or request certain information about your medical records as described in Sippa’s Notice of Privacy Practices.

13. Communication Expectations

Sippa may communicate with you through Athena, email, phone, SMS/text messaging, or other approved systems.

Some communications may relate to:

• Intake
• Scheduling
• Appointment reminders
• Patient portal reminders
• Care coordination
• Refills
• Lab coordination
• Follow-up
• Payment or membership reminders
• Service updates
• Legal notices
• Safety-related matters
• Marketing messages, if you have opted in or where permitted

Ordinary email and SMS/text messaging may not be fully secure. Patient care communications should generally occur through Athena or another secure system provided by Sippa.

You may opt out of marketing emails or marketing text messages, but Sippa may still send non-marketing messages related to appointments, intake, patient care, billing, account status, legal notices, safety-related matters, or other transactional or healthcare-related purposes.

14. Provider Selection and Care Team

Sippa is built around a physician-led care team model.

To the extent possible and clinically appropriate, patients may have the opportunity to select or continue with a provider or care team rather than being randomly assigned.

Provider availability may depend on licensing, scheduling, clinical fit, operational capacity, and service availability.

15. Financial Responsibility

Sippa is a cash-pay membership and does not bill insurance directly.

HSA/FSA funds may be used when eligible. Documentation may be available if you choose to submit to insurance yourself. Reimbursement is not guaranteed and depends on your plan, benefits, and insurer.

Labs, medications, pharmacy costs, shipping, or third-party services may have separate costs depending on your care plan and the route you choose.

Pricing, membership details, cancellation terms, included services, and excluded services may be described on a separate Pricing page, membership agreement, Athena document, or other patient-facing material.

16. Your Right to Decline Telehealth

You may decline telehealth services.

If you do not want to receive telehealth care from Sippa, you may choose not to proceed with Sippa services. You may seek care from an in-person healthcare provider or another provider of your choice.

Declining telehealth may affect Sippa’s ability to provide care, because Sippa is designed as a virtual care model.

17. Relationship to Other Policies

This page should be read together with Sippa’s:

• Privacy Policy
• Notice of Privacy Practices
• Terms of Use
• Medical Disclaimer
• Athena consent forms
• Membership or payment terms, when applicable

If you become a patient, your care may also be governed by additional consents, notices, agreements, and patient-facing documents completed through Athena.

18. Contact

If you have questions about telehealth services or this page, please reach out.

Sippa by Rhodes Med [email protected]

For medical emergencies, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.