A member of the Fairfield County Medical Association is exposing 'gag orders' written into medical contracts between pharmacies and insurance companies.

Doctor Lee Forest says the gag orders are costing patients billions of dollars a year and he's encouraging the public to report their use to Congress.

He says middlemen, known as 'pharmacy benefit managers,' who work for the insurance industry, use the gag orders to prevent pharmacists from giving helpful advice to customers.

Forest says, “When a patient comes in they might know a way of saving a patient money on medication but they're not able to talk about that and so patients are paying more money for all the different medications that they're getting. There's too many people in the mix, too many middle men, too many people making money off of nothing and adding nothing to the practice of medicine."

Doctor Forest says pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S. made more than $100 billion last year.

He's starting a petition calling on Congress to outlaw gag orders that prevent patients from saving money on prescription drugs.