Amazon Expands Same-Day Prescription Delivery to Nearly Half the US Next Year (cnbc.com) 25
Amazon is "embedding pharmacies in same-day delivery facilities often clustered around major metro areas," reports CNBC.
This will enable "a coming expansion of its same-day prescription delivery service," according to Engadget, "with 20 more cities and affiliated metro areas entering the program next year. This expansion will open up the feature to nearly half of US residents."
"In most cases, that means a customer can order medication by 4 p.m. and receive it at home by 10 p.m.," Amazon said in their announcement — making the case that their service (and its 24/7 pharmacists) "ensures customers can get care within hours, bridging health care accessibility divides..." A recent study found nearly half of U.S. counties have communities over 10 miles from the nearest pharmacy, limiting their access to medications and pharmacist care. Traditional mail-order prescriptions can take up to 10 days to arrive, leaving many underserved... As of 2019, seven in 10 hospitals relied on fax machines and phone lines to transfer and retrieve patient records or order prescriptions. Nearly a third of physicians have said they spend 20 hours or more a week on paperwork and administrative tasks...
The new, smaller pharmacies complement Amazon Pharmacy's existing, highly automated pharmacy fulfillment sites that feature robotic arms and other automation, overseen by a team of highly trained, licensed pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
CNBC adds that in the last year Amazon has also tested prescription deliveries by drone in one Texas city.
This will enable "a coming expansion of its same-day prescription delivery service," according to Engadget, "with 20 more cities and affiliated metro areas entering the program next year. This expansion will open up the feature to nearly half of US residents."
"In most cases, that means a customer can order medication by 4 p.m. and receive it at home by 10 p.m.," Amazon said in their announcement — making the case that their service (and its 24/7 pharmacists) "ensures customers can get care within hours, bridging health care accessibility divides..." A recent study found nearly half of U.S. counties have communities over 10 miles from the nearest pharmacy, limiting their access to medications and pharmacist care. Traditional mail-order prescriptions can take up to 10 days to arrive, leaving many underserved... As of 2019, seven in 10 hospitals relied on fax machines and phone lines to transfer and retrieve patient records or order prescriptions. Nearly a third of physicians have said they spend 20 hours or more a week on paperwork and administrative tasks...
The new, smaller pharmacies complement Amazon Pharmacy's existing, highly automated pharmacy fulfillment sites that feature robotic arms and other automation, overseen by a team of highly trained, licensed pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
CNBC adds that in the last year Amazon has also tested prescription deliveries by drone in one Texas city.
Amazon Has Got To Be Kidding (Score:3)
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Also getting the wrong Amazon package or delivered to the wrong address is mostly an inconvenience. I have had to deliver Amazon packages to neighbors and vice versa. Getting the wrong prescription is a major problem.
All of my Amazon Pharmacy orders have been delivered by UPS, not Amazon's own drivers. That says a LOT to me about who Amazon trusts more.
I don't think UPS has ever messed up any delivery to my home. Amazon has. Fedex and USPS have. But not brown.
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Another related problem is that the mail-order providers (and possibly Amazon) will not call your doc for refills.
Amazon does contact the doctor office. Not sure if they call or just send an electronic request. But they always ask my doctor, somehow, and always get denied because I have to go see the doc in person to get new refills. My doctor never ever ever issues refills without collecting her office visit copay.
But at least Amazon does try to ask on my behalf. YMMV
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That doesn't solve all the problems though. I've actually had more problems with Walgreens than any other pharmacy myself. There were two major issues:
1). Every so often Walgreens gets into a pissing match with their suppliers over pricing. At their scale, I'm sure it's just a fraction of a penny per pill. But they'll happily stop buying and run the entire city out of stock, screwing over the patients who rely on them, just to save that fraction of a penny. It's happened to me twice over the years. Mo
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Where we live in south Jersey, Walgreens is within walking distance, and CVS is a drive over into Delaware, with a $6 bridge toll, which is why we went to the local Wgs. Two of my meds are expensive, Creon 36,000 is about $3K per month, and Cromolyn Sodium is I think about $1K per month, and I've been on both for at least 25 years.
When I retired 9 years ago, after over 33 years from the PA state trans
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I made the mistake of ordering from something OTC from Amazon Pharmacy to be delivered the same day. I waited and watched the map as the driver made other deliveries and then went home for the night. My order arrived the next morning. It was a $10 order so I guess the driver decided it wasn't very important.
Re: Amazon Has Got To Be Kidding (Score:2)
Whoops, we lost your controlled substance and the doctor literally has no ability to prescribe you more. Or even worse, whoops, your Amazon driver opened your prescription and swapped the pills for asprin because the original's street value is in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Yeah.... probably no.
I looked at it... (Score:2)
...and it's not at all like Amazon
Amazon is easy to use and straightforward
The so-called "Amazon pharmacy", is not easy at all, it's a confusing mess
Methinks that Amazon simply slapped their name on some other pharmacy service
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Amazon (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe I am the only happy customer (Score:2)
Have used Amazon pharmacy for over a year because it ends up being cheaper than any other option, and that matters when I take 8 different medications every day.
My job provides medical insurance but the prescription co-pays are three or four times what it costs just using Amazon pharmacy and paying out of pocket. It is even cheaper than GoodRx.
But the main downside is that they appeared to have just one pharmacy hub in Miami. The deliveries are by UPS, not Amazon drivers. Make of that what you will. The
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Have used Amazon pharmacy for over a year because it ends up being cheaper than any other option, and that matters when I take 8 different medications every day.
That was my question. Living as ai do in a rural area I'm a heavy user of Amazon, and it has worked very well for me for whatever I can't get from my local stores. To me the advantage to having Amazon be my pharmacy would be the ability of such a large company to buy huge amounts of medications directly on the international market, bypassing that Pharmacy Benefits Manager crap that makes our regular pharmacies so expensive. Is Amazon actually doing that? Bulk purchasing exactly how Canada gets the low price
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It isn't just the bulk purchasing that makes Canada cheaper, it is that the government bargains with the drug companies,. The bulk purchasing is really a side effect of that. Only now is Medicare being allowed to do that from some medications, over the squeals and hair-puling of the Conservatives...communism and whatever hobgobblins are fizzing in their brains at the moment.
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All bulk purchasing involves negotiations - that's why it saves money. I know that Medicare is forbidden from negotiating, except for that handful of drugs that the Democrats won't shut up about, but is anything preventing Amazon from going Canadian and making negotiated bulk bids for all compounds?
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I use them for one prescription med ("ask your doctor if .... is right for you"). The price is 1/10th of the insurer and about 1/3 of GoodRx. However, their interface is terrible. It looks like Amazon but it's only lightly linked to the main site. It can take multiple tries to get it right. They send text messages that aren't accurate. Everytime I select 90-day supply, I get 10-day. But it's working for what I need one med. Maybe they'll improve.
No thanks (Score:2)
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I dont need Amazon having access to my health records and circumventing HIPPA the way they get around every other law just so I can save a few cents. Fuck off Bozos.
Being not nearly as important as you are, I don't see any national security implications of al Qaeda getting hold of my colonoscopy results. I want my health records to be online and immediately accessible to any health personnel who need them. I've wasted too much of my time filling out those infernal chickensratch medical histories for every new physician - and for so many of the old ones, years after year. If the date of my childhood chickenpox is that important, at some point I'm going to lose that info
Re: No thanks (Score:2)
Creepy (Score:2)
So far Amazon has Alexa that listens inside your home, owns the robotic vacuum company that has a map and square footage of your home, and now will know what prescriptions your household takes. Nothing concerning at all.
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What Amazon needs is a bot name Jeeves who will clean the house, answer the doorbell, collect Amazon pill packages....and even take the pills for you if you ask it nicely.
Re: Creepy (Score:2)
Prescription access is an issue (Score:2)
I am lazy. I have only one prescription, for Lipitor / Atorvastatin that keeps cholesterol down. I get 90 days' supply at a time, my doctor will re-prescribe with a web form, and my drugstore is about 4 block from my house.
Even given these tiny barriers, I still sometimes go without for a full week before getting around to resupplying. I shudder to think what it would be like if they were nontrivial. Making prescriptions easy to obtain is a big health win, so I wish Amazon and its competitors a good com
Half of population (Score:4, Insightful)
Not half of US by area. A non-subtle distinction.