Doctors in Seoul have sued Doctor Now, a telemedicine service provider, for letting users choose which prescription drugs they want to receive at home.

The doctors’ group also urged the government to withdraw the temporary Covid-19 policy that allowed telehealth, saying it was causing more confusion in medical practice.

The Seoul Medical Association (SMA) said on Tuesday it filed a complaint with Seoul’s Gangnam Police Station against Doctor Now for violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and the Medical Services Law. Additionally, SMA has encountered issues with the Doctor Now app beta service allowing users to obtain a prescription for the medications they want.

A user can choose a prescription medicine, put it in the shopping cart and get the prescription by calling a doctor on the phone and asking for the medicine. Then the user can receive the prescription drug through a delivery service. In the app, the “BEST Drugs” page displays popular drugs chosen by users.

Doctors and pharmacists have said that this Doctor Now service violates Section 27 of the Medical Services Act, which prohibits drug recommendations, mediations and inducements for profit.

They also claimed the service breached Section 68 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, which prohibits the advertising of prescription drugs.

Aware of the problem, the government sent a letter to Doctor Now on May 25 to correct the service.

However, Doctor Now only changed the title of the service from “get a drug users want” to “store a drug users want” and continued to offer the service.

The company argued that it was up to a doctor to decide which drug could be prescribed and that a pharmacist set the price of the drug. “This service is operated 100% based on the guidelines of the Department of Health and Social Care and related laws,” Dr Now said.

However, on Tuesday, SMA released a statement saying the telemedicine company was continuing to operate the service even after the government ordered the practice to be corrected, citing possible violations of the law. “This shows how distorted telemedicine services are,” SMA said.

The group of doctors said the problem at Doctor Now was just the tip of the iceberg.

“We should discuss the technical and ethical issues that arise from the limitations of contactless medical care,” SMA said. “The government should also consider withdrawing the temporary license for telemedicine.”

A group of internal medicine specialists in Seoul backed SMA and demanded that the companies stop offering telehealth platform services.

“Safety verification should be a top priority in the discussion on legalizing telemedicine. Moreover, any push for telehealth without social consensus must be stopped,” the Seoul Physicians Association said.

Doctor Now said he would confirm more details of the complaint to decide how to respond.

“We heard the news on Monday afternoon for the first time, and we are unable to comment on the matter,” a Doctor Now official said. “We are discussing it internally.

He also declined to comment on the app service that allowed users to choose which drugs they wanted to be prescribed. “As a company official, there are many things we can explain. But since we have the problem of filing a complaint, we cannot comment on anything.

The official stressed that Doctor Now could only survive if it worked with doctors and pharmacists. He said the company will continue to listen to various opinions from doctors and pharmacists to improve the service.

CEO Jang Ji-ho founded Doctor Now during his third year at Hanyang University College of Medicine in 2019. Jang took a leave of absence from medical school and is focusing on running Doctor Now.