Teledoc Medical Services: A lawsuit waiting to happen. “Earlier this year, TelaDoc Medical Services, a Dallas-based company, began providing over-the-phone medical care, including prescriptions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The company, which has treated 40,000 patients so far, is trying to appeal to two groups of people: those who don’t have the time to see a doctor and those who don’t have the money.

The controversial service fields calls from patients, then guarantees that one of its doctors will call the patient within three hours or the service is free. The doctor spends a few minutes collecting a patient’s medical history, then runs through symptoms as best as possible from afar. TelaDoc doctors can write prescriptions, except for controlled substances such as narcotics.”