Free, and yours to keep

The prescription brand launch checklist.

Twelve things to line up before your first order ships, in the order they unblock each other. Six of them are questions for a healthcare lawyer, and those are marked. Every step also says whether Dispense Flow handles it, covers part of it, or leaves it to you.

  1. Form the entity, and open its bank account Worth a lawyer’s eye

    Everything downstream is signed by the entity: the BAA, the pharmacy agreement, the processor application. A founder who signs those personally has made themselves the counterparty.

    • Register the company and get the EIN.
    • Open a business bank account in the entity name.
    • Decide who can sign, and keep that list short.

    Yours to do

  2. Decide which states you will sell into Worth a lawyer’s eye

    Licensure is per state, so this decides which prescribers you need and which patients you can accept. It is also the cheapest decision to change now and the most expensive to change after you have run ads.

    • Pick the states you want at launch, and know why.
    • Check whether your treatments carry state-specific rules, including any that require a video visit.
    • Write the list down. Your store enforces it at checkout.

    Dispense Flow covers part of this You pick the states. Your storefront holds the list and enforces it at checkout, so an order from outside it cannot be placed.

  3. Line up prescribers licensed in those states

    A prescriber makes an independent clinical decision and can decline. A plan that assumes everyone is approved is not a plan.

    • Use a provider network, or contract a group yourself.
    • Confirm coverage in every state on your list.
    • Agree the turnaround you will promise patients, and what happens when it slips.

    Dispense Flow handles this for you Connect a provider network and each order routes to a prescriber licensed in the patient's state.

  4. Line up pharmacy fulfilment

    Someone has to dispense and ship, in every state you sell into, for every treatment you offer. Compounded medications come from a licensed compounding pharmacy.

    • Confirm each treatment can be dispensed and shipped where you sell it.
    • Agree what happens when a medication goes out of stock or is discontinued.
    • Know who the patient contacts about a late shipment, and make sure it is you.

    Dispense Flow handles this for you Pharmacy routing is built in. An approved order goes to the fulfilling pharmacy without you forwarding anything.

  5. Write the intake questions, per treatment Worth a lawyer’s eye

    The intake is the clinical record the prescriber decides on. One generic form across every treatment is the most common thing founders get wrong.

    • One questionnaire per treatment, not one for the brand.
    • Include the contraindications a prescriber will ask about anyway.
    • Ask nothing you do not need. Every extra question is data you now have to protect.

    Dispense Flow covers part of this Intake is built per treatment here, not per brand, with a form builder to write each one in. What to ask is yours and your counsel's.

  6. Get a signed BAA from everyone who touches patient data Worth a lawyer’s eye

    Your platform, your support tool, your email provider, your analytics. If a vendor handles protected health information on your behalf, HIPAA wants an agreement in place before they do.

    • List every tool that will see patient information.
    • Get a BAA from each, signed, before launch.
    • Remove the ones that will not sign. That is the answer, not a workaround.

    Dispense Flow covers part of this We sign a BAA with you, covering the platform, your storefront and the mail it sends. Your other vendors are still yours to collect.

  7. Publish the policies, and make them true Worth a lawyer’s eye

    A privacy policy describing practices you do not follow is worse than none: it is a written record of the gap.

    • Privacy policy, terms of service, and a do-not-sell or do-not-share page.
    • Shipping, refund and cancellation terms a customer can find before they pay.
    • Read them against what your store actually does.

    Dispense Flow covers part of this Your storefront ships policy pages with a starting draft in them. Making the words match what your store actually does is yours.

  8. Set up payment processing that will accept telehealth

    Prescription telehealth is high-risk to most processors. Finding that out after launch means a frozen account holding your first month of revenue.

    • Tell the processor exactly what you sell, in the application.
    • Expect to show your policies, your BAA and your clinical process.
    • Have a second processor in mind before you need one.

    Dispense Flow covers part of this Stripe and Authorize.Net connect in settings. Being approved for prescription telehealth is between you and the processor.

  9. Decide your subscription and auto-renewal terms Worth a lawyer’s eye

    Undisclosed recurring charges generate disputes, and disputes cost more than the order. The compliance reason and the commercial reason are the same reason.

    • Show what is charged now, what renews, when, and how to cancel, before the patient pays.
    • Make cancelling something they can do themselves.
    • Offer a pause. A patient who only wants to skip a month will cancel if that is the only button.

    Dispense Flow handles this for you Subscriptions, renewals, and cancel and pause the patient can do themselves are all built in. The wording of your terms is yours.

  10. Get your ad accounts compliant before you spend

    Ad platforms restrict prescription terms, and most require certification before you can run at all. An account suspended on day one takes weeks to recover.

    • Check what certification each platform requires, and start it early. LegitScript takes time.
    • Keep treatment names off landing pages you point ads at, until you are certified.
    • Keep tracking pixels off any page that reveals a specific treatment for a specific person.

    Yours to do

  11. Build the store, then walk it yourself

    Every gap you find yourself is one a patient does not. Place an order end to end before anyone else can.

    • Product page, intake, checkout, approval, shipped. All of it, as a patient would.
    • Read the emails a patient gets at each step, in a real inbox.
    • Check it on a phone. Most of your traffic will be.

    Dispense Flow handles this for you The site builder builds the store, and onboarding walks you through a full test order that does not charge and never reaches the pharmacy.

  12. The launch-week runbook

    Launch week is when the unhandled case shows up. Decide now who handles it, so the answer is not improvised in front of a patient.

    • Who watches for new orders, and how often.
    • What you say when a provider declines, a payment fails, or a shipment is late.
    • Who to call at the pharmacy and the provider network, and in what hours.
    • What would make you turn the ads off.

    Dispense Flow covers part of this The dashboard shows every order's stage and tells you when one needs a person. Who answers it, and what they say, is yours to decide.

This checklist is general information about launching a business. It is not legal, medical or tax advice, and it is not a substitute for a healthcare lawyer who knows your states and your treatments.