Functional Medicine Telehealth: Running a Virtual Practice

Functional medicine telehealth works because most of the visit is conversation: history, lab review and follow-up. What a virtual practice needs is video tied to the visit, labs the patient can complete near home, supplements shipped through a dispensary, and licensure where the patient is. Ona runs video, labs, supplements and billing on one chart.

Quick answer:

Initial consults, lab reviews and follow-ups translate well to video. Physical exams, in-office draws and procedures don't, so a virtual practice plans around them.
Labs are the hard part of going remote. Patients need a nearby draw site, an at-home kit or a mobile phlebotomist, and the results need to come back into the chart, not into an inbox of PDFs.
Licensure follows the patient. Clinicians generally need to be licensed or legally permitted to practice in the state where the patient is located, and that decides where you can market and book.

What Translates to Video, and What Doesn't

A functional medicine visit leans on a long history, a timeline of symptoms and lifestyle, and the reasoning across several lab panels. Almost all of that happens through talking and looking at results together, which is why the specialty moved to telehealth more easily than most.

Works well by video:

Initial consults. The long history visit, especially when the patient completed intake beforehand so the visit isn't spent filling in a form.
Lab review. Walking a patient through results is easier on a shared screen than across a desk.
Follow-ups. Shorter check-ins on how a plan is going, what changed and what happens next.
Protocol updates. Adjusting a supplement list or care plan and sending the patient the updated version.

Needs an in-person route:

Physical examination, when the clinician needs one.
Specimen collection, unless the lab offers an at-home kit or mobile draw for that test.
In-office procedures of any kind.

Many practices end up hybrid: in person for the first visit or when an exam matters, video for everything after. Plan the service menu that way from the start, so each visit type has a clear default mode.

Licensure: The Patient's Location Decides

The licensure rule is simple to state and easy to get wrong. HHS's telehealth licensure guidance says clinicians must meet the licensure requirements of the state where they are located and be licensed or legally permitted to practice in the state where the patient is located, with the same standards whether care is in person or virtual. A patient on vacation in another state is, for that visit, a patient in that state.

What that means operationally:

Know where every patient is at the time of the visit, not just their home address. Ask at intake and confirm when booking.
Market where you are licensed. Advertising nationally while licensed in two states fills the pipeline with people you can't see.
Look at compacts. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact describes itself as a voluntary, expedited pathway to licensure for qualified physicians who want to practice in multiple states, and its site lists 44 member states and two US territories. Other professions have their own compacts.
Check scope, not just license. What naturopathic doctors, nurse practitioners and other licensed clinicians may do varies by state, including whether and what they can prescribe. State rules change, so confirm with each state's licensing board before you book patients there.

Prescribing controlled substances by telehealth carries separate federal and state rules. Most functional medicine work doesn't involve them, but if yours does, treat it as its own compliance question.

Labs When the Patient Isn't in the Room

Labs are where a virtual functional practice either runs smoothly or drowns in phone calls. The patient needs a way to give a sample near home, and the practice needs the result back on the chart.

There are three routes, and most practices use more than one:

A nearby patient service center. The patient walks into a draw site in the lab's network.
An at-home kit. Common for many specialty tests, where the patient collects the sample and ships it.
Mobile phlebotomy. A phlebotomist comes to the patient's home.

Junction, Ona's electronic lab ordering partner, lists all three collection methods on its own site: walk-in, test kit and mobile phlebotomy. Inside Ona Labs, Junction shows each test's collection method, turnaround and lab fee before you add it, with the patient's ZIP code applied and their insurance for lab billing shown before you order. Junction orders are tracked from Ordered to Completed, an Action required badge flags when the lab needs something, and Junction can text and email patients about draws and results.

Fullscript's lab catalog is the second route. Ona's help center notes it includes routine panels and specialty tests such as DUTCH hormone testing, and the order and any payment are handled in Fullscript. The third route is a PDF requisition for a lab of the patient's choice: Ona fills it in from the chart, with ICD-10 codes and insurance, and you can share it straight to the patient's portal instead of faxing it.

Then results come back to one place. Junction results arrive on their own, faxed results are added, and anything else, including a Fullscript results PDF or a report the patient brings, can be uploaded. Ona parses each report into values against reference ranges, and Trends lines markers up by LOINC code across labs, so the next video visit opens with the picture across panels. Patients see reports in the portal as Pending review until a clinician marks them reviewed.

Supplement Fulfillment Without a Front Counter

An in-person practice can hand a patient a bottle. A virtual one ships. In Ona, supplements are charted on the patient record, coded from the NIH label database, and protocols can be applied from templates in one step. If the practice dispenses through Fullscript, Recommend via Fullscript opens Fullscript's catalog inside Ona, the patient orders through Fullscript, and their plans and orders show on their Supplements page.

Two practical details for remote patients. Fullscript matches patients by email, so a patient without an email on file won't sync. And the patient's current supplement list can be exported as a PDF with how to take each one, which is useful when the plan changes on a video call and the patient wants it in writing. Patients don't see supplements in the portal today, so the PDF is the handout.

The Video Visit Itself

Ona telehealth is browser video that belongs to the visit, not a separate meeting tool. Set a visit to Video call and it gets two links, one for the clinician and one for the patient. The patient's link goes out with the booking email and reminders and shows as Join video call in the portal, with no app and no account.

What matters for a functional medicine visit:

Screen share. Walk through a lab report or a plan together, then pop the call into picture-in-picture while you update the chart.
Recording for the scribe. Recording is on by default per visit, each participant's microphone on its own track, and the transcript feeds the visit summary, suggested records and the note. Recording may need consent in your state; Ona's consent library includes a Telehealth Consent template.
A waiting room with a clock. Joining opens five minutes before the start and stays open until 30 minutes after the scheduled end.
One clinician, one patient. Ona doesn't run group visits today, so group programs need another format.
Billing like any visit. Video visits default to place-of-service 10 on the claim, and a service can carry its own code. More on mechanics in running telehealth visits.

Booking works across time zones: patients see open times in their own time zone while the practice's hours stay set in its own. Services can require payment at booking through Stripe, and screening questions can decide who can pick a time, useful for keeping out-of-state patients off the calendar.

Choosing Software for a New Virtual Practice

The question behind "what EHR is best for a new telehealth functional medicine practice" is usually how many logins the practice will run. A virtual practice needs scheduling, intake, video, charting, labs, supplements, messaging and payments. The table compares a few common routes using what each vendor publishes; it is not a full feature comparison or a ranking.

Route	Video	Labs	Supplements	What to check
Ona	Built-in browser video on the visit, recorded for the ambient scribe; one clinician and one patient per visit	Junction, Fullscript's lab catalog or a PDF requisition; reports parsed into values with trends across labs	Charted from the NIH label database, templates, optional Fullscript dispensary	No group video visits today
Practice Better	Built-in video for one-on-one and group sessions, plus a Zoom integration	Fullscript Labs for US practitioners on paid plans, with results syncing back to the client record	Fullscript integration for protocols	Plan level for the features you need
Healthie	Check current telehealth details on Healthie's site	Fullscript Labs inside Healthie since May 2026, with results in the Client Overview and Labs tab	Fullscript integration	Which features sit on which plan
Stitched stack	A separate video tool with a BAA	Lab portals and PDFs by email or fax	A dispensary account outside the chart	Who reconciles the logins, and where the full record lives

Ona's pricing is per seat with every feature included: $130 per practitioner seat and $45 per staff seat per month, 10% off on annual billing, with a 14-day free trial and no card required. Omnichannel messaging is included for practices with two practitioners or fewer. Ona also scales past the first clinician, from solo practices to multi-location groups, which matters if the virtual practice grows into several states and several clinicians.

Frequently asked questions

Can functional medicine be done by telehealth?

Much of it can. Initial consults, lab review, follow-ups and protocol updates are mostly conversation and shared results, so they work well by video. Physical exams, specimen collection and in-office procedures need an in-person route, which is why many practices run hybrid: in person when an exam matters, video for the rest. Labs can be completed at a nearby draw site, with an at-home kit or by mobile phlebotomy.

Do I need a license in every state where my telehealth patients live?

You generally need to be licensed or legally permitted to practice in the state where the patient is located at the time of the visit, as well as meeting the rules of the state where you are. Compacts such as the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact give qualified physicians an expedited pathway to licenses in member states. Scope of practice also varies by state, so confirm with each state's licensing board.

How do virtual functional medicine practices handle lab testing?

They order labs the patient can complete near home, through a patient service center, an at-home kit or mobile phlebotomy, and bring the results back into the chart. In Ona, labs are ordered from the chart through Junction, Fullscript's lab catalog or a PDF requisition, and reports from Junction, a fax or an upload are parsed into values with trends across labs.

How do patients get supplements from a virtual practice?

Usually through an online dispensary that ships to the patient. In Ona, supplements are charted on the patient record and can be recommended through Fullscript from the patient's Supplements page, with the patient's Fullscript plans and orders shown beside what is charted. The patient needs an email address on file for Fullscript to sync. The current list can also be exported as a PDF handout.

Do patients need an app for Ona telehealth visits?

No. Patients join from their link in a modern browser on a computer or phone, with nothing to install and no account to create. The link arrives with the booking email and visit reminders and shows as Join video call in the patient portal. The waiting room opens five minutes before the scheduled start.

How are telehealth visits billed in Ona?

Like any other visit. Charting, notes, prescriptions and billing work the same as in person, and video visits default to place-of-service code 10 on the claim, with a service able to carry its own code. Cash-pay practices can require payment at booking, and insured visits flow into a draft claim from the chart.

Next step

If you are setting up a virtual functional practice, book a 15-minute demo, held by video, and walk through a video visit, a Junction order and a supplement protocol on one chart. Or start the 14-day free trial from the pricing page, no card required. More on the specialty is on the functional medicine page.