Over the last nine months, four senators led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have conducted an inquiry into the growing partnerships between direct-to-consumer telehealth companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. In the last two years, both Pfizer and Eli Lilly launched websites that, among other things, connect patients with a telehealth provider for conditions their medications treat.
The opportunity to “talk to a doctor now” increases access to care, the drug companies say. But the legislators, and some health policy watchers, worry that relationships between pharma and telehealth companies could drive patients toward expensive and unnecessary medications.
Today, the senators released new details of those business arrangements, informed by the companies’ responses to their probes.
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