Sen. Durbin Calls for Crackdown on DTC Telehealth

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is calling for a crackdown on pharmaceutical companies’ growing use of direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms, following the release of a Senate investigation that raises concerns about inappropriate prescribing, conflicts of interest, and compromised patient care. Durbin, joined by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Peter Welch (D-VT), unveiled a nine-month investigation 7/17 into telehealth partnerships between major drugmakers Pfizer and Eli Lilly and five contracted telehealth companies: Populus, UpScriptHealth, Form Health, Cove, and 9amHealth.

“Big Pharma’s newest sales scheme funnels patients to telehealth companies chosen and paid by the drug companies, seeking to influence prescription pads,” Durbin said. “We must crack down on Big Pharma’s latest ploy to promote and sell expensive medications at the expense of patients and taxpayers.”

The Senate report, titled “Big Pharma’s New Sales Scheme: Expanding Patient Access or a Virtual Pill Mill?,” details a system in which pharmaceutical companies appear to be leveraging these platforms to steer patients toward their own branded medications — often through cursory online consultations that rarely involve video and sometimes let patients choose their medication before ever speaking to a provider.

Among the report’s findings:

• Prescriptions were issued at extraordinarily high rates: 85% of patients using Pfizer’s UpScript platform received a prescription. On Lilly’s platforms, 74% of users received a prescription, with some platforms hitting a 100% prescription rate.
• Superficial consultations: Providers were incentivized to complete up to 10 visits per hour, often with minimal patient interaction.
• Conflict-laden prescribing: Some prescribers received payments from Eli Lilly while writing large volumes of prescriptions for the company’s drugs — one reportedly drove more than $230,000 in Medicare spending on a single Lilly drug in just one year.
• Data-sharing arrangements: Both Pfizer and Lilly collected detailed patient data from telehealth companies, including demographics, prescription information, and adherence — raising privacy concerns.
• Massive financial investment: Lilly reportedly paid nearly $1 million to three telehealth companies, while Pfizer may have contracts worth over $2 million.

Senator Warren described the arrangement as “shady tactics to squeeze patients and line [Big Pharma’s] own pockets,” warning that the system encourages overprescribing while sidelining patient care. While the senators acknowledged that telehealth can expand access to care, they cautioned that these drug company-controlled platforms may undermine the quality and integrity of virtual care.

Both Pfizer and Lilly have denied influencing clinicians through financial incentives or steering prescribing. They frame their programs as tools for improving patient access, with the prescribing decisions left to independent clinicians.

With the findings now public, the Senators are expected to push for greater regulatory scrutiny of these arrangements, warning that the blending of healthcare delivery with aggressive pharmaceutical marketing threatens both patients and public healthcare spending.