{"id":296,"date":"2026-06-04T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=296"},"modified":"2026-06-04T10:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:07:15","slug":"how-americans-got-hooked-on-drive-thru-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"How Americans got hooked on \u201cdrive-thru\u201d healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A generation or two ago, when Americans had an important but nonemergency medical need, many of them would have called on their family doctor, somebody who had treated them for years. It was a little like going to a family restaurant: The purveyors knew you, knew your tastes and personal quirks, and they were part of the fabric of your community.<\/p>\n

Read more What just happened in California?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These days, patients aren\u2019t visiting the family doctor nearly as frequently. They\u2019re instead heading to what you might think of as drive-thru clinics \u2014 some physical, some entirely online \u2014 where they order off a menu, undergo a cursory and formulaic interaction with a healthcare provider they\u2019ll never see again, and head off with the product they came to get. It\u2019s like ordering a Big Mac at McDonald\u2019s: When you pull up, you already know exactly what you want.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The very nature of medical care in the United States is changing. It is a transformation driven by the flaws of the preexisting healthcare system, technological progress, evolving patient preferences, and the do-it-yourself consumerism that is the lifeblood of modern medicine as much as any conventional clinical practice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In some cases, this drive-thru healthcare approach is filling genuine holes in healthcare access for Americans who are in need, such as people in the United States who live in the states with restricted access to reproductive and abortion services, and who have had no choice but to seek help online from other providers out of state. Beyond that, we\u2019re dealing with a doctor shortage. for all types of care are getting longer and longer \u2014 and these new practices promise to put you in touch with one with a simple click of a button. They can also offer competitive prices compared to conventional medicine, even without taking insurance, because they have maximized their efficiency. They\u2019ve eliminated a lot of overhead in terms of physical space or administrative workload. One provider can screen an enormous number of patients and rake in a lot of revenue, which allows the company to reduce their prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe word of the day in health policy is affordability,\u201d said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, who chairs the Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health and has studied these practices. \u201cYou can see how these can create a more affordable and accessible way\u201d to get healthcare.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But replacing the traditional doctor-patient relationship with something brief and transactional presents real risks to patients and their long-term well-being. Some of the most common reasons for seeking these services \u2014 erectile dysfunction medications or hair loss treatments \u2014 could be signs of an underlying health condition that would benefit from a more serious conversation with a personal physician.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The trick is in knowing the difference \u2014 and that isn\u2019t always easy to do. The US healthcare system in its current incarnation places an enormous burden on individuals to figure out the best way to get the care they need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201c\u201dA lot of quote-unquote empowered consumers are engaging in a lot of do-it-yourself medicine without necessarily understanding the limits of it,\u201d Dr. Sachin Jain, who held several leadership roles in the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration and is currently the CEO of the nonprofit Medicare Advantage insurance carrier SCAN Health Plan, told Vox. \u201cI think even though there are more options for patients today than there were 30 years ago, the degree of fragmentation, in my view, is decreasing quality and truly eroding the patient experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Drive-thru clinics don\u2019t appear to be going anywhere \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly why consumers need to be smart about how they use them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Why drive-thru healthcare is thriving<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Drive-thru medical care has emerged as primary care access has shrunk in recent decades. Long-term relationships with a family physician or general practitioner, which were once the foundation of medical treatment, are less common: The number of Americans who say their source of medical care is their personal physician has been steadily declining. As of 2018, nearly half of adults under 30 said they did not have a primary care doctor. By one estimate, 100 million Americans face some kind of barrier (physical or financial) to accessing primary care. More than 30 percent of Americans , a share that has been steadily growing since 2000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In hundreds of communities, a doctor shortage is already here. Most of rural America, 80 percent of it, is considered by the federal government to be medically underserved. About 20 percent of the US population lives in rural communities, but only 10 percent of doctors practice there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis notion that there\u2019s going to be this available person who\u2019s covered through your insurance, like who schedules visits with you and really gets to know you and is able to provide you with a comprehensive assessment, is just unavailable to most people,\u201d Jain said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Faced with these barriers, Americans have gravitated toward the convenience offered by urgent care facilities and \u201cminute clinics\u201d in pharmacies or large retail stores. The number of urgent care visits among privately insured Americans doubled from 2008 to 2015. In 2024, more than 80 percent of Americans said they had visited an urgent care or other kind of walk-in clinic; about 7 percent said in 2022 that it was their regular source of care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The success of those businesses revealed Americans were comfortable with one-time-only healthcare. The idea of visiting a provider for one specific purpose predetermined by the patient started to take hold. As medical marijuana proliferated in the 2000s and 2010s, clinics popped up that offered the kind of routinized service that is now commonplace: Simply answer a few questions, and you\u2019ll get the prescription you desire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today, that kind of service is available for an array of medical products and services, including erectile dysfunction pills, testosterone, GLP-1s, birth control, performance anxiety drugs, and Botox. They are finding an audience as Americans desire agency over their own healthcare \u2014 driven by the lack of access to conventional healthcare, distrust in the medical establishment, and wellness trends that prioritize self-optimization.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to one consumer survey, 80 percent of Americans said that they own at least one personal medical device, which could include a blood pressure monitor or smartwatch. Nearly half prefer at-home or virtual care to visiting a doctor\u2019s office. They increasingly consult Google or ChatGPT to investigate their own health before seeing a provider.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe glorified do-it-yourself medicine through the lens of this idea of consumerism,\u201d Jain said. \u201cWhat consumerism has really done is it\u2019s created a high degree of fragmentation in a customer base, where they may not fully understand or know what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid those trends, the old-fashioned image of a family doctor you\u2019d call for any range of medical needs looks increasingly out-of-date and out of reach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s turning medical care into a commodity,\u201d said John McDonough, a public health professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and author of the new book America\u2019s Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era<\/em>. \u201cYou can buy the package of services. You can buy the individual services, and you can go to the store and pull it off the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Medical care looks more like Hims and Hers, perhaps the most high-profile examples of this kind of limited-category telehealth. Visit their websites and it looks a lot like ordering at a fast-casual chain restaurant: Have better sex, grow fuller hair, lose more weight, treat menopause, and would you like a side of testosterone with that? In 2025, the company generated $2.4 billion in revenue, an increase of 59 percent from 2024; it now claims more than 2.5 million subscribers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Many consumers are getting the convenience they desire, but others may feel that the patient experience suffers. Patients on social media who\u2019ve used Hims and Hers, for example, will sometimes complain about how impersonal the interactions feel or worry the service is increasing their dose too quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement to Vox, Dr. Pat Carroll, chief medical officer of Hims & Hers, said:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Millions of Americans face real barriers to healthcare: long wait times, stigma, cost, and provider shortages. Digital health can help close these gaps in care but only when done responsibly.<\/p>\n

At Hims & Hers, every treatment decision is made by a licensed, independent provider who reviews a comprehensive medical intake to determine clinical eligibility before anything is prescribed. No shortcuts. As patient expectations rise, that standard should be non-negotiable across the industry.<\/p>\n

Read more How Trump is justifying new tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Why you should be cautious about using drive-thru medical services<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The premise of these services is that the patient knows what they want. But even a well-informed patient is not a physician \u2014 and, at the same time, these business models are based on doctors selling a specific product, not necessarily on whether they are providing the most clinically appropriate care during this one-time interaction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat happened is a number of entrepreneurs started picking off specific pain points, like things that are true pain points for patients, where there\u2019s no clean place to go, and created access,\u201d Jain said. For example, you may not be able to find a dermatologist covered by your insurance but visit a Hims and Hers-type service, and \u201cthere\u2019s going to be someone there who\u2019s willing to use their medical license to actually give you the thing you need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Patients should be cautious about using these \u201cdrive-thru\u201d services, given those misaligned incentives, experts told me. Two of the most popular uses \u2014 for men who are seeking treatment for impotence or hair loss \u2014 are instructive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On its face, erectile dysfunction checks all the boxes for this kind of service: It\u2019s a narrow medical question and there is an obvious drug for physicians to prescribe. People who might be embarrassed to bring the problem up can get the treatment they want after answering a few questions from a provider that they will never have to see again, without anybody else needing to know.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But erectile dysfunction can be a more complex medical question than \u201ccan you get an erection when you want to have sex?\u201d It absolutely could be something as innocuous as older age, and therefore an ED drug is the right treatment. But it could be a sign of serious underlying health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, depression and anxiety, sleep apnea, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cGood clinical practice suggests that you have to rule out underlying causes while you\u2019re simultaneously treating it,\u201d Jain said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the kind of stuff that gets lost in clinically sloppy protocols. Oftentimes, these \u2018lifestyle conditions\u2019 are the window into broader systemic issues that go untreated or undertreated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Likewise, losing your hair can simply be a byproduct of aging and thus responsive to a hair-loss treatment. But it can be an outward symptom of a more serious issue like hypothyroidism or, again, stress and anxiety. Performance anxiety, which some of these services will prescribe a beta blocker for ahead of, say, a public speaking engagement, could be a signal you have deeper issues with anxiety or depression.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Or take GLP-1 drugs, which have become a popular offering for telehealth services. As Vox has reported, these powerful drugs can be effective in helping people lose weight \u2014 but they can also have serious side effects, including dramatic loss of muscle mass. They require careful management in terms of eating the right diet and getting on the right kind of exercise regimen. Developing a holistic weight-loss plan would be best done in ongoing consultation with a doctor who knows you and your medical history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But this is where the economics of drive-thru healthcare fail patients. The doctors who practice in them don\u2019t necessarily make money by offering you the best personalized advice or looking at your health from a whole-person perspective. They make money by prescribing you the medication you came to get; some of these services even ship the drug to you directly themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe business model is the provider has a drug they\u2019re trying to sell,\u201d Vivian Ho, a healthcare economist at Rice University, told me. Some pharmaceutical ads now even allow you to click through to connect with a provider who will prescribe you the advertised drug.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Secret-shopper research has revealed the limitations of these types of services. When Mehrotra\u2019s team tried out contraception telehealth clinics using different patient profiles, they found these services were generally very good at screening for the specific product that they offer. But the companies did not take a broader look at the person\u2019s sexual and reproductive health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey never address the fundamental questions. No one ever asked about STDs. No one ever asked, \u2018Did you get your Pap smear?\u2019\u201d Mehrotra said. \u201cThere\u2019s some holes here in this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Why you may sometimes need a drive-thru clinic anyway<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Of course, it\u2019s easy to say that everyone should seek out a primary care physician for some of these services \u2014 but, given the access issues faced by many people, it\u2019s not that simple. For a person who needs birth control but can\u2019t get an OB-GYN appointment (wait times were up 33 percent in 2025 compared to 2022), using that uncurious drive-thru clinic might be better than the alternative if the alternative is nothing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf a woman wants a freaking birth control, she should have every right to get birth control. \u2026 There\u2019s all sorts of research out there about birth control deserts in the world,\u201d Mehrotra said. \u201cSo if that\u2019s what she wants, go for it. \u2026 You could see how the rationale for these in the context of birth control could be quite viable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jain told me that, in his ideal world, insured patients would at least have a specific general practitioner who would hopefully become their first stop for some of these medical needs. The emergence of direct primary care \u2014 where patients pay a flat fee for on-demand access to the same doctor or a group of doctors \u2014 could also provide a counterweight to drive-thru clinics. The premise of these practices is that you pay for a subscription to have a doctor on call whenever you need them, and<\/em> that doctor will already know you and your medical history. But those services tend to target people well-off enough to pay those fees on top of health insurance premiums (or who can afford to just pay for everything out of pocket).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And there may be times when a one-time-only provider is a good option. Going to urgent care or a minute clinic can be convenient for minor medical needs like a strep test or a flu shot. Prior case studies have found that these facilities tend to operate under rigorous clinical protocols that guide the care they offer to their patients. The value proposition is clear: It\u2019s readily available, it\u2019s clinically sound \u2014 and it\u2019s cheaper than going to the emergency room.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen there\u2019s a degree of clinical discipline that is really rigorous and where there\u2019s a high degree of protocolization that ensures people are getting really high-quality care, I have no problem with it,\u201d Jain said. \u201cBut a lot of times the work is highly superficial.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Then there is at least one truly special case, where drive-thru clinics are providing a service to patients when they have no other options available: mifepristone and other abortion drugs in a post-Dobbs<\/em> America. Requests for telehealth abortion care have doubled since the decision, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. They have offered a vital lifeline to patients with an urgent healthcare need when the alternative is having to travel out of state: A recent report from the Guttmacher Institute found that the number of American women who lived in a state with a total abortion ban and traveled out of state for an abortion dropped in 2025 while, at the same time, telehealth visits for women in those states were on the rise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Supreme Court is still weighing whether to permit doctors to continue virtually prescribing mifepristone. For this special type of drive-thru clinic, the stakes are high.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWomen in the United States already face real health consequences, including preventable deaths, due to abortion care being denied or delayed,\u201d wrote two women\u2019s rights advocate at Human Rights Watch in May. \u201cEnding telehealth provision would greatly worsen this crisis, especially for women and girls with limited financial resources, or with disabilities, and those living in states with abortion bans or in rural areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But those abortion providers are, in the broader context of DIY healthcare, an exception that proves the rule. Without those services, patients would lose access to lifesaving medical care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For other healthcare needs, however, convenience does not always equal quality. Buyer \u2014 and patient \u2014 beware.<\/p>\n

Read more The Supreme Court\u2019s new decision tilting the midterms toward Republicans, explained<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    These online appointment services, personified by the Hims and Hers brands, are making medical services more available \u2014 but at the cost of long-term doctor-patient relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Americans got hooked on \u201cdrive-thru\u201d healthcare - American Living Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=296\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Americans got hooked on \u201cdrive-thru\u201d healthcare - 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