One upside of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it has become much easier to see a doctor, if you’re willing to go online. Medicare and many insurers will cover your care without an in person visit. With telehealth, it’s also much easier for Pharma to ensure you get the prescriptions they’re marketing, regardless of whether you need them.

Katie Palmer reports for Stat News on the benefit of telehealth for pharmaceutical companies. They can reach patients directly online and offer access to health care providers who can prescribe their drugs. You don’t need to see your PCP to fill a prescription.

The one-two punch of pharmaceutical company online ads and telehealth can boost sales for Pharma. So, Pharma is investing a lot in telehealth. In addition to more drug sales, Pharma can collect a lot of data on people. The question becomes are patients getting overprescribed, what are the risks, and who’s paying attention?

Currently, the federal government, through the FDA, determines what prescription drugs are approved, what goes on their labels and how they can be advertised. States, in turn, oversee the health care providers who prescribe the drugs and the pharmacies that distribute them. With telehealth, ads and distribution go together. It’s not clear whether states or the federal government is in charge.

Many states do not allow “the corporate practice of medicine.” But, it’s easy enough for pharmaceutical companies to invest in, or otherwise collaborate with, separate entities to do the prescribing and have patients click on a button to reach a virtual doctor on a separate web site. The pharmaceutical companies can then claim that these entities are acting independently when they prescribe their drugs.

Telehealth enables the pharmaceutical companies to move from “ask your doctor” about this or that prescription drug to “click here to talk to a doctor now.” It enhances the likelihood that patients will fill the prescription drugs advertised. Any doctor can prescribe you a medicine. It doesn’t have to be your PCP.

Of course, if managed care companies were actually managing your care, they could intervene in the process if you were being prescribed a drug that was not appropriate. But, it’s not as easy as it might appear. They generally should rely on the doctor to determine whether you need a drug.