Telehealth companies keep exposing their customers' medical data. What should they do?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The appeal of telehealth is easy to explain: Instead of calling a doctor, booking an appointment and hoping to eventually get a prescription, you can log onto an app or website and get approved for a new medication within minutes. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, scores of online health services have launched with the promise of quick, convenient access to drugs for ADHD, sexual dysfunction, anxiety, weight loss and more. Increasingly, though, government regulators are accusing these companies of deceptive, unethical business practices, including disclosing their customers’ health data, signing them up for hard-to-cancel subscriptions and bypassing real-time consultations with doctors.

The Federal Trade Commission’s latest lawsuit alleges that telehealth pioneer Hims & Hers engaged in all of those tactics, running afoul of U.S. Hims has disputed the government’s claims, calling them “an effort to generate headlines at our expense.” In recent years, FTC officials have filed similar cases against more than a half-dozen telehealth companies, including online therapy provider BetterHelp and pharmacy discount service GoodRx. In both cases, regulators said the companies shared users’ health data with online platforms such as Meta and Google, without getting permission.

Experts say part of the problem is that federal laws that govern the handling of health information generally don’t apply to telehealth companies. “There’s an entire universe of companies collecting huge amounts of consumer health data every day that aren’t covered by our current health sector-specific laws,” said Andrew Crawford, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. Here are some things to know before signing up for a telehealth service: Don’t expect to actually talk to a physician Nearly all telehealth visits begin with a questionnaire in which users provide details about their medical history and possible medications they’re interested in.

According to the FTC’s lawsuit, Hims customers were automatically enrolled and billed for recurring prescriptions with “virtually no opportunity to review the provider’s recommended treatment.” Researchers have documented similar practices across the industry, even for injectable weight-loss drugs that typically require a physical exam and other precautions before beginning treatment. consumer protection laws.Hims has disputed the government's claims, calling them “an effort to generate headlines at our expense.”In recent years, FTC officials have filed similar cases against more than a half-dozen telehealth companies, including online therapy provider BetterHelp and pharmacy discount service GoodRx.