Chewy Connect With a Vet faces regulatory hurdles, skeptical

Chewy, the e-commerce pet-goods giant best known for its convenient auto-ship services and generous return policies, wants to grow its veterinary telehealth service as part of an overall push into health care. 

While the telehealth service is a small part of the company’s rapidly expanding health offerings, it is important to its strategy. Yet it also faces regulatory obstacles and skepticism from the veterinary community. Longtime veterinarians told CNBC the service can have some benefit for minor situations, or for people who don’t have easy access to vet care. But it could create problems for pets, too, they said.

Chewy’s service, called Connect With a Vet, has experienced significant growth, but it’s been limited by a specific kind of regulation known as the veterinary client patient relationship, or VCPR, according to Chewy CEO Sumit Singh. 

“If you look at our Connect With a Vet, it’s the singular most scaled telehealth platform in the market today, only after two years, and yet, it doesn’t form a meaningful portion of our business. Why? Because when you research pet health, you’ll find that there’s a specific term called VCPR,” Singh said.

He also noted that barrier is “breaking down” in the wake of the Covid pandemic and multiple states “are already doing away with VCPR.”

Most states forbid veterinarians from performing their primary duties – diagnosing conditions and prescribing medication – until they establish a VCPR by seeing an animal in-person and performing a physical exam. 

“Trying to make an assessment over video without any prior relationship at all, that’s the part that kind of concerns me,” said Brett Levitzke, the chief medical officer and founder of Veterinary Emergency and Referral Group, an emergency animal hospital in New York City. “There is no substitute for a physical exam. Period.” 

Nonetheless, there is a growing movement to change VCPR regulations. The leader behind that push, the Veterinary Virtual Care Association, or VVCA, is an advocacy group co-founded by longtime lobbyist and political strategist Mark Cushing. It’s funded by Chewy and several other pet businesses expanding into vet telehealth. 

When asked about the company’s position on VCPR, Chewy said it doesn’t take a stance on the issue and declined to say whether its veterinarians would diagnose and prescribe medication if the laws are changed. Currently, Chewy’s veterinarians do not diagnose conditions or prescribe medications.

The company suggested CNBC speak with Cushing, whom the company described as an industry expert on the matter, to learn more about VCPR. Cushing said he does not represent Chewy “in the telemedicine space,” but the company is a primary sponsor of the VVCA. 

It is not clear how much money Chewy has donated to the VVCA because, as a…