Educational overview · Approx. 8 min read · illustrative, not advice
Indiana asks things of a metabolic build that neighbouring states do not: a state controlled substance registration, a written practice agreement rule for prescribing nurse practitioners, and notice to the Attorney General for certain ownership transactions. Not legal advice.
The price your member is comparing you against
Cash-pay members arrive with a reference price already in their head, and that reference has moved sharply. Novo Nordisk's NovoCare Pharmacy self-pay pricing for Wegovy, checked August 2026, starts at 149 dollars per month for the 1.5 mg or 4 mg oral doses for new patients, with the standard pen from 199 dollars per month for the first two months as a limited-time offer and the 7.2 mg high-dose pen from 399 dollars per month after the introductory period, all stated as subject to change.
Separately, the November 6, 2025 White House agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk set starting doses at 350 dollars per month through the TrumpRx direct-to-consumer site launched in January 2026, trending toward 245 dollars over two years, with a 245 dollar Medicare price, a 50 dollar Medicare copay, and roughly 150 dollars per month for oral GLP-1s if approved.
Those are manufacturer and policy prices, publicly stated. They describe the environment a member walks in with. They are not a statement about what any Indianapolis program charges or collects, and no figure here may be combined with another to imply one.
Question one: Indiana's regulator structure and entity filings
Physician licensing in Indiana runs through the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, staffed and administered by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, with nursing under the Indiana State Board of Nursing in the same agency. Entity formation and annual business filings run through INBiz, the state's business portal operated with the Secretary of State.
Ask your Indiana counsel whether a management-services structure, a non-clinician company contracting with a physician-owned clinical entity, is consistent with how Indiana treats unlicensed practice and professional fee splitting, and confirm it against the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana. This page states no conclusion. Ask what binds regardless: anti-kickback exposure and board advertising standards.
Where a percentage arrangement appears anywhere in your structure, understand its shape before you sign. What a royalty really costs is the piece that shows how a percentage of revenue compounds over the life of a business, whether it is called a royalty, a management fee or a platform fee.
Question two: Indiana licensure for out-of-state clinicians
Start by discarding older guidance. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's telehealth page carries an announcement headed "Telehealth Regulatory Changes & Termination of Telehealth Certifications for Out-of-State Practitioners, Effective July 1, 2024." If your summary still describes that certificate as a live filing step, the summary is stale.
What survives matters more than the certificate did. The agency reads IC 25-1-9.5-9 as meaning a practitioner outside Indiana who treats, or decides whether to prescribe for, someone here agrees to "the jurisdiction of the courts of law of Indiana." Ask your Indiana counsel whether every clinician touching an Indiana member is licensed as the state requires, and confirm it with the agency.
Ask Atlas to put this in writing: whether the Atlas build includes a clinician credentialing tracker covering state-level licensure and telehealth requirements, or whether the partner's medical entity maintains that separately
Question three: the Indiana controlled substance registration
The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency states that "Practitioners must hold a CSR in order to prescribe, administer, store, dispense or otherwise handle controlled substances in the State of Indiana," citing 856 IAC 2. Confirm scope, exemptions and renewal cycle with the agency.
GLP-1 receptor agonists are not scheduled controlled substances, so ask your counsel whether a tightly scoped program touches the registration at all. Settle it during the build, because scope expansion is the normal trajectory of these businesses, and a credential with lead time attached should be obtained before a service is advertised rather than after.
Federal registration is the fixed reference point at 888 dollars for a three-year term under 21 CFR 1301.13. Everything above that is state-specific and must be checked in Indiana.
Question four: nurse practitioner practice agreements in Indiana
Indiana rule 848 IAC 5-1-1, readopted July 2024, conditions an advanced practice nurse's authority to prescribe legend drugs on "proof of collaboration with a licensed practitioner in the form of a written practice agreement." Bills to remove that have been introduced without changing it, so confirm the rule as it stands with the Indiana State Board of Nursing.
The build consequence is the same as in every collaboration state: the physician relationship is a recurring cost and a documented artifact, not a signature. Budget it as a line item and produce the agreement during the build rather than after the first member enrolls.
If your route into this category is an existing practice adding a metabolic program rather than a standalone build, chiropractic metabolic wellness expansion covers what changes when a program is bolted onto an established patient base and where the scope boundaries sit.
Question five: Indiana's ownership-transaction notice requirement
Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 9, effective July 1, 2024, added a health care transaction notice chapter to the Indiana Code. Hall Render's client alert describes it as requiring a health care entity in a merger or acquisition with another "with total assets of at least $10,000,000" to notify the Attorney General 90 days beforehand. Ask counsel whether your structure falls inside that.
This matters for a licensing model precisely because a license is not an acquisition. Atlas does not take equity in your entity, does not acquire your practice and does not become a party to your clinical business. But if your own plan involves buying an existing Indianapolis practice as the clinical vehicle, the notice question is yours to answer before you sign.
Ownership is the whole point of the structure. What independent ownership actually means for a clinic is the clearest statement of why Atlas builds it this way rather than as a franchise with a permanent claim on your revenue.
The Indianapolis and Marion County layer
Indiana counties levy local income taxes that employers withhold, and the Indiana Department of Revenue publishes the county rates and method in Departmental Notice #1. A Marion County address carries a county withholding obligation as a payroll setup item. Confirm current rates and registration steps with the Department or your accountant.
Do not assume anything about local licensing from experience in another state. Ask the City of Indianapolis and Marion County directly what zoning, signage, facility permits and local registrations apply to your specific address and your specific activity, and get the answer before you sign a lease rather than after.
Nothing on this page is a tax opinion or a rate schedule, and nothing here should be used to estimate what any business will owe or collect.
What Atlas licenses to an Indianapolis partner
The build covers the telehealth stack, the ordering system, member AI coaching, the brand kit and the operational playbooks, delivered as a single build. Atlas provides no medical services and employs no clinicians. Clinical care is delivered by a separately licensed medical entity that the partner establishes with their own counsel.
Terms: a one-time license fee, zero percent of partner revenue, no ongoing partner fees, no assigned exclusive geography. Franchises sell territory and charge against your revenue for as long as the agreement runs; Atlas sells a system once and then has no claim on what you build with it. The fee is not published by design; it is disclosed in full on the fit call. The license fee is one-time. It carries 0% of revenue and no ongoing partner fees. The figure is not published anywhere, by design — it is disclosed in full on the fit call, where it can be put next to what it covers instead of floating on its own.
When your counsel has answered the out-of-state licensure, controlled substance and collaborative agreement questions, bring the answers to the apply page. The fit call is short and specific when those are settled.
What this page is not
This page is general commentary from a company that is not a law firm. Nothing on it is legal advice and nothing on it creates a lawyer-client relationship.
Regulation here changes and varies by structure. Two Indianapolis programs with different ownership, staffing and prescribing arrangements can land in different places under the same statute. Statutes are amended, rules are readopted, and guidance is withdrawn, as the terminated out-of-state telehealth certificate above shows.
Every question above belongs to your own healthcare counsel, licensed in Indiana, working from your actual documents, and each answer should be confirmed with the Indiana agency named beside it. Atlas provides no medical services and employs no clinicians.
- Indiana Professional Licensing Agency — The Medical Licensing Board of Indiana and the Indiana State Board of Nursing are administered by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. (source) [VERIFIED]
- INBiz, State of Indiana — Indiana business entities are formed and file annual reports through the state's INBiz portal. (source) [VERIFIED]
- Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Information on Telehealth — The agency's telehealth page carries the announcement "Telehealth Regulatory Changes & Termination of Telehealth Certifications for Out-of-State Practitioners, Effective July 1, 2024," and summarises IC 25-1-9.5-9 as providing that a practitioner physically located outside Indiana who establishes a provider-patient relationship with, or determines whether to prescribe for, an individual located in Indiana agrees to the jurisdiction of the courts of law of Indiana and to Indiana substantive and procedural laws. (source) [VERIFIED]
- Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Controlled Substances Registration — "Practitioners must hold a CSR in order to prescribe, administer, store, dispense or otherwise handle controlled substances in the State of Indiana," with registration rules at 856 IAC 2 and a separate registration required for each location where a practitioner administers, stores or dispenses. (source) [VERIFIED]
- Indiana Administrative Code 848 IAC 5-1-1, via Cornell Legal Information Institute — An advanced practice nurse may be authorized to prescribe legend drugs on submitting "proof of collaboration with a licensed practitioner in the form of a written practice agreement" setting out how the two will cooperate, coordinate and consult; most recent readoption July 31, 2024. (source) [VERIFIED]
- Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman, client alert, April 19, 2024 — Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 9, effective July 1, 2024, requires an Indiana health care entity involved in a merger or acquisition with another health care entity with total assets of at least $10,000,000 to give the Indiana Attorney General written notice at least 90 days before the transaction. (source) [VERIFIED]
- Indiana Department of Revenue, Departmental Notice #1 — Indiana employers withhold state and county income tax, and the Department publishes the county rates and withholding computation in Departmental Notice #1, revised as rates change. (source) [VERIFIED]
- Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, via the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency physician page — Whether a management-services structure between a non-clinician company and a physician-owned clinical entity is consistent with Indiana's treatment of unlicensed practice and professional fee splitting is a question for Indiana counsel and the board; this page states no conclusion. (source) [INFERENCE]
- Novo Nordisk / NovoCare Pharmacy, checked August 2026 — Wegovy self-pay pricing starts at 149 dollars per month for the 1.5 mg or 4 mg oral doses for new patients, the standard pen from 199 dollars per month for the first two months as a limited-time offer, and the 7.2 mg high-dose pen from 399 dollars per month after the introductory period; pricing stated as subject to change. (source) [VERIFIED]
- CNBC — November 6, 2025 White House agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk set starting doses at 350 dollars per month via TrumpRx launching January 2026, trending toward 245 dollars over two years, with a 245 dollar Medicare price, a 50 dollar monthly Medicare copay and approximately 150 dollars per month for oral GLP-1s if approved. (source) [VERIFIED]
- US Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 1301.13 — DEA practitioner registration is 888 dollars for a three-year registration period. (source) [VERIFIED]