A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, physician shortages, and delays to receive in-person care have led to the boom of subscription-style healthcare services that promise a fast review of symptoms and streamlined ordering of prescriptions. But experts are questioning if this is truly the answer medicine needs, according to CBS News.
Companies like Hims & Hers, Wisp, Ro and many others allow consumers to easily and quickly be evaluated from the comfort of their home, or anywhere with internet access, and receive prescriptions for everything from hair loss, mental health conditions, sexually transmitted infections, birth control and more. Amazon also pushed into the subscription healthcare realm this year, partnering with One Medical to allow subscribers to more easily access care and prescriptions for even everyday illnesses.
While these telehealth subscription models do have contracted physicians to review patient information and suggest and prescribe treatments, some experts worry that the model is too heavily focused on drugs instead of other, also important aspects of healthcare.
"This isn't medicine. This is selling drugs to consumers," Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., told CBS.
The ease with which patients can access care instantly, compared by some to being as easy as accessing Netflix, misses the piece of incorporating and monitoring other important aspects of patient care, other experts told the outlet.
"These companies are very solution-oriented," Ateev Mehrotra, MD, a professor of healthcare policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told CBS. "They're not thinking about that comprehensive care."
Patients who receive medications through these services don't typically have routine follow-up check-ins or accompanying treatment plans like talk therapy in addition to depression medication, for example.
Although experts may be concerned, consumers seem to enjoy the access and ease of the new models of care. Companies like Hims & Hers, Wisp and Ro continue to grow their market shares.
These companies assert that they should not replace primary care, but be an asset to it in a system that is overburdened.