How to start a longevity clinic

To start a longevity clinic, define the services you can deliver, the evidence behind each one, and how you will explain their limits. Then build the staffing, testing, follow-up, and payment model around that list. Review your employment agreement before leaving your job. A clinic name is only the beginning; the useful plan says exactly what patients receive and how you decide whether to keep offering it.

This guide focuses on practice design for licensed clinicians. State rules govern scope and ownership, and clinical decisions require evidence specific to the patient and intervention.

How do you start a longevity clinic?

Begin with a narrow service menu you can explain and support. For each proposed service, identify the clinical purpose, the evidence you have reviewed, the training required, and the follow-up burden. Complete the shared business setup after those choices, so equipment, staffing, and contracts follow the care you plan to provide.

1. Define the patients you intend to serve and the questions they are bringing to the visit.
2. Review your employment agreement, including outside work, notice, and patient communications.
3. Check scope, ownership, and any collaboration requirements in each state you will serve.
4. Build a service review sheet using the table below.
5. Identify testing, referral, and coverage arrangements before purchasing equipment.
6. Set a payment model with clear inclusions and separate charges.
7. Complete the entity, identifiers, records, and insurance steps in the private-practice guide.

What belongs on the service menu?

Use a service review sheet to separate a test's appeal from its clinical purpose. A patient should be able to understand what question the service addresses, what a result might change, and what remains uncertain. These prompts are a way to review proposed services, not an endorsement of any therapy.

Question	What to document before offering the service
Who is it for?	The patient group, clinical question, and reasons to refer elsewhere
What supports it?	The guideline or study, population, outcome, and limits
What does the result change?	The decision a result could inform and who discusses it
What could go wrong?	Risks, contraindications, incidental findings, and escalation plan
What does the patient pay?	Professional fee, outside tests, follow-up, and optional purchases
When will you reconsider it?	The evidence update, safety signal, or operational problem that prompts review

For example, do not stop the plan at “offer a comprehensive panel.” Write who selects the tests, how you explain uncertain findings, and who follows up when the ordering clinician is unavailable. That makes the work visible before the first patient pays.

Avoid turning a measured marker into a promise about years of life or future health. Evaluate the outcome a study actually measured, and describe uncertainty in the same conversation as the possible benefit.

Is longevity medicine an ABMS specialty?

As of October 12, 2026, longevity medicine is not on the ABMS specialty and subspecialty certificate list. Private longevity and anti-aging credentials have their own requirements. On your website, name the issuer and the credential accurately, alongside your state license and any specialty certification you hold.

The American Board of Longevity Medicine pathway is offered under the American Board of Regenerative Medicine. A4M describes separate ABAARM and ABAAHP tracks. These are their own certification programs, not ABMS certificates. Check the issuer's eligibility and maintenance rules before enrolling.

Choose education to close a specific gap in your planned services. Ask how competence is assessed, whether the teaching distinguishes human outcomes from mechanisms, and what supervision or mentorship is available.

How do labs and outside partners fit the clinic?

Decide which work happens inside your practice and which goes to a partner. For every outside service, specify who orders it, who performs it, who explains the result, and who owns the next step. A referral list becomes useful when it includes a process for making sure the patient reaches the next clinician.

Proposed capability	Planning decision
In-office testing	Confirm the applicable laboratory certification, equipment, training, and quality process
Send-out testing	Confirm result routing, unexpected-result coverage, and patient charges
Nutrition or exercise support	Define each professional's role and when they refer back
Specialist assessment	Agree on the referral question, records transfer, and follow-up responsibility
Telehealth follow-up	Check the patient's location and the authority to provide care there

The functional medicine practice guide explains the distinction between specimen collection and performing tests, plus supplement review. If your menu includes hormone care, use the hormone clinic guide for the different operational questions it raises.

Should you use visits, membership, or both?

Choose the model that matches the work patients receive. Visit fees can make a defined consultation easier to explain. A membership needs a clear account of ongoing access and follow-up. In either case, build the budget from clinician time, preparation, messages, records, and results, as well as time in the appointment.

Use the startup-cost guide to gather quotes. For each membership benefit, write the delivery cost and the capacity it consumes. Reserve time for unscheduled work and coverage when you are away. Do not build the budget around a full panel from the first month.

Before publishing the agreement, have counsel review its payment terms, cancellation terms, state insurance treatment, and interaction with payer contracts. The concierge practice guide covers membership and Medicare questions in more detail.

What should be ready before the first patient?

Run a fictional patient through booking, intake, an outside result, and a follow-up question. The goal is to find unclear ownership before real patients depend on the process. Include a patient who declines an optional test or purchase; their route through the practice should remain easy to explain.

Have the service review sheets, insurance confirmation, patient agreement, referral process, and backup coverage ready. Assign someone to review the evidence and public claims when services change. A focused menu that the team understands gives you a better starting point for that review.

Where can Vye Health help?

Vye Health helps providers launch, run, and grow private practices. Vye manages licensing, credentialing, malpractice insurance, and your website, and payer contracts if you want them.

Bring your service review sheets and staffing assumptions to the conversation. Apply to Vye Health.