Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who We Are:

Who founded mygotodoc?

Our founder and CEO is Syed Haider, MD. Leveraging over a decade practicing medicine as a hospitalist as well as extensive experience in telemedicine, Dr. Haider launched his own website in mid-2020 amidst the pandemic. He primarily focused on COVID-19 through 2021, treating over 5000 acutely ill patients with 0 deaths, and successfully treating thousands more prophylactically. As the pandemic exposed holes in the global medical system, Dr. Haider and his team decided to expand the offerings on mygotodoc to provide disaster preparedness medkits to all Americans who desire to be prepared for every eventuality.

Why use mygotodoc?

Please see our About page.

Who can use our service?

You must be above the age of 18 to register as a patient. If under 18, a parent or guardian will need to sign up and add you under their account. You also need to provide a valid photo ID and selfie that are only used to verify your identity and age (This can also be done during a video call). We cannot serve patients without identity verification as we are not just an answers service, but also a medical practice.

Is mygotodoc available where I live?

We aim to serve the entire country, but may not be available in every state yet. Please check our registration form or ask us for the latest coverage information.

2. What We Do:

How quickly will you review my request?

Really, really fast. Most of the time that means right away and usually it means within a few hours, but we always aim to review and reply to your requests or messages within 24 hours or less.

How is this different from a regular doctor’s visit?

Quick, convenient, affordable, and online all the time.

You get access to your own, skilled and personable medical team via unlimited free chat messages and access to prescriptions within the limitations of our currently available services.

Is this a safe way to get care?

Our process is designed to be just as safe as an in-person visit. Just be sure to answer our questions honestly and read any important info or cautionary notes we send about your treatment plan, so you know all the risks and benefits. In fact, you may find that the information we provide goes into more depth and detail than what you get from most doctors. We believe that informing our patients is key.

How do I keep my own doctor informed about the care you provide?

It’s important to keep your own primary care practitioner and your consultants up to date on any medical care you receive and any medications you take. You can request your health records at any time and forward them to your practitioners or print them out and take them in to your next appointment. The standard doctor’s fee applies for preparing medical records.

How do I sign up my family?

Every patient needs their own account, a separate evaluation, and separate prescriptions. If other people in your family need care or medication, and they are 18 or older, it is best to have them register separately.

If they are younger than 18, they can be added under your account as family members on the first screen when logging in to Push Health. Regardless of age, every person needs their own account, either a separate account or family member account. Each individual needs a separate evaluation and separate prescriptions. Only the primary account holder will receive a notification when messages are sent by your doctor.

What is asynchronous chat anyway?

If you hate going to the doctor, you’ll love this. Take a load off, lay back, relax and put your feet up. The doctor is in … your living room.

Most people find this actually works out way better than a typical doctor’s visit because you have plenty of time to think of all those things that you tend to forget when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office.

It’s kind of like messaging with someone in a different time zone. They’re slightly out of sync with you, so you may not always be able to carry on a live chat conversation. They may not respond immediately because they are busy responding to other patients, but they usually reply back within a few hours, up to 12 in some cases, but never more than 24.

The best way to approach it is to send them all the questions you can think of, whenever they occur to you. When they get around to it, they’ll send you all the answers.

What if I’m sick right now?

We are currently unable to take new symptomatic patients. For patients who sign up after September 15, 2021, we are only able to accommodate preventative or “just in case” prescriptions. Our service is optimized to provide medkits to have on hand, so you can begin treatment on day 1 of symptoms. If you are currently experiencing symptoms, it is imperative that you find a doctor locally who can evaluate you immediately.

If you signed up before September 15th 2021 and currently have symptoms that need treatment, please note that we are not currently available for live telemedicine visits should you need urgent evaluation. If you still want us to process your prescription request, we may be able to do so after reviewing your chart and symptom questionnaire, but cannot guarantee that a prescription will be written after the review or offer any promise of urgent service. With the back and forth sometimes required, it may take a few days to finish reviewing your chart and write your prescription, so you should consider finding another doctor who can attend to you urgently.

Do I need to have a primary care doctor to use mygotodoc?

Our service does not replace your primary care provider and you should have had a medical exam at some point in the last 2 years. In order to utilize the medication refill service you should have an ongoing relationship with a prescribing doctor, or be between prescribing providers, with no more than 6 months since your last visit.

Will I have a live video or phone call with a doctor?

Short answer: it depends (on where you are and what’s going on – different states, different rules). Some of our patients won’t require one, but if the doc determines that a call or video chat is medically necessary, they’ll contact you directly or else staff will set up an appointment.

Will I have a live video or phone call with a doctor?

Is it legal to prescribe medication online?

Yes. As long as you are currently physically present in a state the physician has a license in, it is legal for them to prescribe medicine to you online.

Is it legal to prescribe medications to have on hand for emergencies?

Yes. Prescribing antibiotics and other medications to have on hand in case of travel or emergency is legal and common practice. At mygotodoc, we make it easy to cover all possible bases with one easy signup process, online and from the comfort of your home.

Why do you need to see my ID?

In any physical medical office you will be asked for ID and the receptionist will match the photo on your ID with your face in person, and may sometimes even request a photo of your face to place in the medical record. Likewise, we also require a picture of your ID and a selfie to match, since we are matching the ID to your selfie asynchronously instead of matching the ID to your face in person. This is in order to verify your identity, and is required by nationwide laws and regulations governing telemedicine. This ID and selfie matching is even more important online than in person since anyone who knows your name and date of birth could theoretically sign up for medical care and request prescriptions without your knowledge which would not only create confusion in your medical record, but lead to insurance fraud and leave the prescribing doctor liable for medical malpractice for prescribing medications to the wrong person.

Is this service private and secure?

Yes, maintaining the privacy of our customers is paramount to our mission. All communications and storage are securely encrypted. We have also put in place a number of safeguards to prevent hacking in accordance with Federal HIPAA regulations. We maintain stringent security protocols to protect your data and will never sell your personal information. Our Privacy Policy details how we protect your personal information.

Which medications are prescribed for an emergency supply?

For chronic disease prescriptions, we are generally able to prescribe backup supplies of almost any medication, depending what other medications you are currently prescribed. Your doctor reserves the right not to prescribe any medication, even ones you currently have a prescription for. Also, your doctor will NOT prescribe any narcotics.

Our Disaster Preparedness Antibiotics Kit (D-PAK) contains the following medications:

Amoxicillin-Clavulanate
Azithromycin
Cephalexin
Ciprofloxacin
Doxycycline
Metronidazole

Our Emergency Symptoms Medkit contains the following medications and supplies for the listed symptoms:

Anaphylactic shock: epi pen
Travelers’ diarrhea – imodium
Constipation – colace and senna
Painkiller – prescription strength ibuprofen 800mg
Anxiety attack/Sleep aid – hydroxyzine
Anxiety attack/Situational anxiety – propranolol
Nausea/vomiting medication – Zofran
Severe allergy – prednisone
Severe skin rash (like poison ivy) – triamcinolone
Severe allergies/Sinusitis – Flonase prescription strength steroid nose spray
Asthma attack/Airway hyper-reactivity due to pneumonia/bronchitis – albuterol inhaler

Which conditions are treated by the prescribed antibiotics?

A non-exhaustive list of the possible infections treated by the antibiotics included in our Disaster Preparedness Antibiotics Medkit (D-PAK) include:

Bioterror from anthrax, plague and tularemia
Bite wounds
C. diff
Cellulitis
Cholera
Chlamydia
Diverticulitis
Intra-abdominal infections
Ear infections
Lyme disease
Malaria
Osteomyelitis
Pelvic inflammatory disease
Prostatitis
Pneumonia
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Salmonella
Sinusitis
Strep throat
Tooth infections
Traveler’s diarrhea
Urinary tract infection

Are the medications you prescribe safe?

All medical interventions carry inherent risk. Your doctor will provide you with extensive information about the specific risks associated with each medication you are prescribed. The antibiotics we prescribe are carefully selected for maximum efficacy while also balancing safety considerations. Antibiotics are widely over prescribed and over used in the United States, sometimes to the detriment of the patient. The chronic medications we prescribe for a backup supply carry the same risks as explained by your primary care doctor or specialist, but we reserve the right not to prescribe medications you already use if we believe to do so may be dangerous. You may find that the information we provide about risks and safety goes into much further depth and detail than you receive from most doctors.

How often can I reorder?

For the Disaster Preparedness Antibiotics Medkit (D-PAK), Emergency Symptoms Medkit and 6 Week Backup Supply are currently limit to ONE order per person, per year. If particular meds are actually used before the year is up we may be able to refill those specific meds by request. For the COVID Prevention Medkit, contact us once you have 10 or fewer doses left.

Can I get my prescription sent to a local pharmacy?

For COVID Medkits, we send two prescriptions: the first to a mail-order compounding pharmacy that ships to your door, and the second to a local pharmacy.

For the 1-month Backup Supply Medkit, we can send prescriptions to any pharmacy in the US and in fact anywhere in the world – as long as they have a fax number and can read or speak English! However, we can’t guarantee the quality or reliability of any offshore pharmacies.

For the D-PAK and Preparedness Medkits, we have negotiated the lowest nationwide costs for each kit with independent pharmacies around the country, however you can also opt to have the prescription transferred to your local pharmacy if you so choose.

Why can’t you send both COVID medkit prescriptions to my local pharmacy?

The reason is two-fold. First, many pharmacies are refusing to fill prescriptions for off-label medications. Learn more about this and what you can do about it here. Second, too many pharmacies that do fill these prescriptions are charging astronomical fees for these medications. Some patients reported being charged $700-1000 for a short course of medications from other websites. To make sure our patients are able to get their medications and aren’t overcharged, we send one prescription to an independent mail-order pharmacy that ships your medication to your door at the lowest cost nationwide. We send the second prescription to your local pharmacy, where you have the option to use insurance and receive your meds quickly.

Can the doctor complete a prior authorization, return to work form or other forms?

These may be possible on a case by case basis, but you should be aware that prior authorizations are not accepted for off-label indications.

3. Costs and Insurance:

How much does it cost?

Please see our Fee Notice for detailed information about our fee structure.

So how much will the medication cost?

Between $70-100, sometimes less, depending on which medkit you choose and where you live. We send your medication to a low-cost mail order pharmacy partner that ships direct to your door. We negotiate low prices across the country but you also have the option to move the mail-order prescription to your local pharmacy. The only prescriptions we ask not be moved are the mail order COVID protocols.

What forms of payment do you accept?

We accept all major credit cards.

Do you take insurance for the doctor’s fee?

mygotodoc does not accept any form of health insurance, but we may be able to provide a superbill for you to submit for possible reimbursement. We are not covered by any private or public insurance including Medicare or Medicaid.

Will my insurance cover the cost of my medications?

With the exception of one or more meds in the the COVID Medkit (see above), most insurance plans do cover the cost of most of the medications our doctors prescribe. The doctor will usually prescribe low-cost generics and, when prescribing a brand name, the prescription usually allows the pharmacist to switch out a generic at your request, unless you specifically request a prescription for a brand name drug and specify that no substitutions are allowed.

Who do I pay for my medicine, labs and imaging studies?

You pay the pharmacy for the medication. We are not an online pharmacy and don’t sell medicine. Because of that, and the medkit prices we’ve negotiated with our pharmacy partners, you’ll end up spending a lot less money than you would if you bought these medications elsewhere.

In most cases, if medically indicated, we can fax in a lab or imaging test order for a flat physician fee, which covers the review of medical necessity and interpretation of tests once the results are available. The physician fee does not cover the cost of the labs or imaging studies, which either need to be paid to the facility directly, or covered by insurance. We do not arrange your insurance coverage with the facility. If you are using insurance it is best to confirm that they will be able to run your insurance before you have any tests done.

If using the Push Health EMR system which provides access to cash pay labs at Quest, you pay us directly for Quest lab fees, so you do not need to pay anything at the lab.

Can I get a refund for your service or for a donation?

Push Health based cash pay labs once paid for are not refundable by us, because we transfer all fees to the lab immediately. You can request a refund from the lab, but it is not guaranteed.

Donations are not usually refundable because the funds are immediately put to use to provide expert medical care to those less fortunate.

Refunds are not generally available after a service request that requires a fee has been completed.

That being said, if you feel you’ve been charged in error or are otherwise unhappy with the service, let us know and we’ll make it right. Your satisfaction is our highest priority.

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