11/28/2025
# Senate Investigation Exposes Alarming Truth: Are Some Telehealth Platforms Really "Virtual Pill Mills"?
*By David L. Howard, MD, PhD | Founder, My Virtual Physician*
When you log onto a telehealth platform seeking medical care, you trust that the doctor on the other end is making decisions based on what's best for your health—not what's best for a pharmaceutical company's bottom line. A recent Senate investigation reveals that this trust may be dangerously misplaced on certain platforms.
# # The Senate's Troubling Findings
A 2025 bipartisan Senate report led by Senators Durbin, Sanders, Warren, and Welch investigated pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Eli Lilly's partnerships with telehealth platforms including UpScriptHealth, Form Health, Cove, 9amHealth, and Populus. What they uncovered should concern every patient considering online healthcare.
# # # The "Virtual Pill Mill" Model
The investigation found that these partnerships integrate advertising, diagnosis, and prescribing into a seamless online experience where patients are encouraged to self-identify a medical condition and select a specific drug before any clinical evaluation. Some platforms even allow you to choose your medication before speaking with a provider.
Think about that for a moment. This is the exact opposite of how medicine should work.
# # # Prescription Rates That Raise Red Flags
The numbers tell a disturbing story. On LillyDirect, 74 percent of patients received prescriptions, with 100 percent of Cove users being prescribed medication, while Pfizer's UpScriptHealth prescribed to 85 percent of users. These rates suggest a system designed to fulfill demand rather than address genuine clinical necessity.
# # # Speed Over Care
UpScriptHealth advertises that providers can handle six to ten visits per hour, with a visit defined merely as an approval or denial of a prescription request. That's six minutes per patient—or less. Ask yourself: Can any physician conduct a thorough evaluation, consider your full medical history, discuss alternatives, and make a truly informed decision in six minutes?
The answer is obvious: No.
# # Your Data Is Their Marketing Gold
Perhaps most troubling is what happens to your personal health information. Eli Lilly receives between 21 and 28 data fields per patient from its telehealth partners, including demographics, BMI, A1C levels, weight, medication adherence, and contact information. While technically "de-identified," this granular data can fuel targeted marketing and potentially influence which providers get steered your way.
# # Financial Conflicts of Interest
The investigation revealed something even more concerning. Several providers associated with these platforms have received direct payments from Eli Lilly, with one provider's prescribing leading to over $230,000 in Medicare spending on a single Eli Lilly drug in just one year.
When your doctor has financial ties to the drug company whose medications they're prescribing, whose interests are really being served?
# # What This Means for You
These practices raise serious questions:
**Is your diagnosis legitimate**, or are you being guided toward a self-diagnosis that justifies the prescription the platform wants to sell?
**Is the medication appropriate for you**, or is it simply the brand being promoted through that particular platform?
**Is your provider truly independent**, or are they financially incentivized to prescribe certain drugs?
**Where is your health data going**, and how is it being used to market medications to you and others?
# # The Bigger Picture: Trust in Telehealth at Risk
The senators warn that inappropriate or premature prescribing can lead to overuse of expensive medications, drive up costs for Medicare and Medicaid, and harm patients who may not be suitable candidates. But beyond the immediate health risks and financial waste, these practices threaten something even more fundamental: trust in telehealth itself.
Telehealth has enormous potential to improve access to quality care. But when corporate profit drives clinical decisions, everyone loses—except the pharmaceutical companies.
# # A Different Approach: What True Patient-Centered Care Looks Like
At My Virtual Physician, we operate under a fundamentally different model:
**No pharmaceutical partnerships.** We have zero financial relationships with drug manufacturers. None. Our doctors are free to prescribe whatever is truly best for you—name brand, generic, or no medication at all.
**Time for real care.** Our consultations aren't measured in minutes per hour. We take the time needed to understand your health concerns, medical history, and individual circumstances.
**Your data stays private.** We don't sell, share, or monetize your health information with pharmaceutical companies or marketers.
**Independent medical judgment.** Our physicians are salaried professionals, not independent contractors processing high volumes of prescription requests. They're doctors, not transaction processors.
# # Questions to Ask Any Telehealth Provider
Before using any telehealth service, you have the right to know:
- Does the platform have financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies?
- Will my health data be shared with drug manufacturers?
- Are the providers employees or high-volume contractors?
- How much time will the doctor spend evaluating my condition?
- Are providers incentivized financially based on what they prescribe?
- Can I choose any medication, or am I being steered toward specific brands?
If a platform can't—or won't—answer these questions clearly, that tells you everything you need to know.
# # The Bottom Line
Healthcare is not e-commerce. Your health is not a transaction. And your doctor should never be a middleman between you and a pharmaceutical company's marketing department.
The Senate investigation has pulled back the curtain on practices that prioritize profit over patients. Now it's up to you to demand better—and to choose telehealth providers who put your health first.
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*Dr. David L. Howard is a board-certified physician and founder of My Virtual Physician, a telehealth practice committed to independent, patient-centered care free from pharmaceutical industry influence.*
**Ready to experience telehealth the way it should be?** [Schedule your consultation today] and discover the difference that true clinical independence makes.
