Amazon launches online pharmacy in new contest with drug retail

[JudyM]

Source: Reuters

Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday launched an online pharmacy for delivering prescription medications in the United States, increasing competition with drug retailers such as Walgreens, CVS and Walmart. Called Amazon Pharmacy, the new store lets customers price-compare as they buy drugs on the company’s website or app. Shoppers can toggle at checkout between their co-pay and a non-insurance option, heavily discounted for members of its loyalty club Prime.

The move builds on the web retailer’s 2018 acquisition of PillPack, which Amazon said will remain separate for customers needing pre-sorted doses of multiple drugs... TJ Parker, PillPack’s CEO and vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, said in a statement the retailer aimed to bring “customer obsession to an industry that can be inconvenient and confusing.”
...
Should Prime members prefer buying in person, Amazon said its discounts on non-insurance purchases apply at more than 50,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacies - including those run by rivals. Inside Rx, a subsidiary of Cigna Corp’s Evernorth, administers that benefit, Amazon said.
...
The company said Prime subscribers get up to 80% off generic and up to 40% off brand drugs when they pay without insurance, as well as two-day delivery.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-pharmacy/amazon-launches-online-pharmacy-in-new-contest-with-drug-retail-idUSKBN27X170?il=0

[soothsayer]

1. Driver pulls up, gives you your covid shot...

Could happen.

[moriah]

2. Takes a picture of the house they shot the resident up, not your house....

.... unfortunately it's gonna be kinda hard to hike a few doors down and get their COVID-19 vaccine outta their arm.



Actually most of the time the Amazon drivers do a really good job. But yes they have delivered cat food several doors down.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. The pictures are nice, though.

I looked at one and thought, "Hey, that brickwork looks like Joe's house down the block". So I walked over, there's the package.

It was my first foray as "Porch Pirate". (Joe wasn't home)

[ananda]

3. That would be very cool!

I know Amazon is considered an evil company,
and I understand why.. but that company has
been a lifeline to me.. by keeping me out of
stores and retail outlets.

However, CVS has been wonderful and very
convenient for prescriptions, so I don’t see
myself using Amazon pharmacy unless that
changes.

[NurseJackie]

7. Same here!

[moriah]

8. Sadly my Medicare Advantage program is making mail order too cheap to pass up.

I called my local pharmacy, and then found out part of why -- well, the pharmacist didn't like to say it, but he was losing money every time he filled one of my scripts. They took my insurance anyway, because they're good people.

I'd been hoping that by patronizing a local pharmacy, not a chain, that I was helping them. But them losing money plus me having to pay substantially more a quarter to make them lose money?

They said they're happy to keep serving me, and I am going to have my docs keep one month on file with them so if there's a mail order snafu I can still get at least one month of meds while waiting for deliveries, but.... I mean, they already delivered to me before (I paid the very small delivery fee out of pocket, but it didn't make up for my insurance paying them less than it cost them to buy my expensive inhalers to have in stock) and I was already used to 90-day supplies.

It won't be that much of a change, though I wish I could find some way to get people who had better insurance their way. They're a great pharmacy.

[ananda]

9. CVS mailed mine too.

The post office is right next to door to my CVS,
about six blocks away from where I live.

Every 90 days I get a supply of pills for my
underperforming thyroid. Each time the USPS
delivered it right to my mailbox.

I don't know if they lost money or not. They didn't
say.

[moriah]

13. Well, I was basically asking the pharmacist if getting my inhalers...

... through them (because I have a secondary grant that pays my Medicare copay for those inhalers) would help support their business, even if I had to move my other prescriptions to the mail order pharmacy (the ones where the amount the pharmacy charges as my copay actually matters to my wallet).

And that's when he admitted that really, no, because my insurance wouldn't agree to pay a reasonable contracted rate for them, well, it wasn't gonna do him any good.

Every year during open enrollment I have to search for the insurance that's going to give me the best on my scripts, and this won't be the first time I've learned from a pharmacist that the plan I found ended up barely giving brick-and-mortar pharmacies anything for their hard work and dedication (a pharmacist let me know they'd not be taking my plan anymore because of the low reimbursement rates several years ago, and I understood why they had to do it).

And ya know, I mean, if paying the extra every quarter was actually going to help this pharmacy's bottom line, I'd do it. It'd be hard, I'd have to crunch, but I would do it, because I like them. I like their service, I like being able to have everything at one place, and their employees are wonderful.

(Also, my script list is literally insane -- another reason I liked them, because they were good about pointing out things like "Uh, does this doc realize you're already on two other QT-prolonging drugs?" Don't really wanna die of a sudden heart attack thank you...)

[pandr32]

12. Agreed!

We even have organic flour and rare teas sent through Prime. I live in Hawaii so it is a big deal considering most companies won't ship here because of the Jones Act that John McCain wanted to get rid of before he died.
Amazon has allowed us to be well supplied during the pandemic.

[JudyM]

17. What teas do they have that you like?

Big tea lover, here.

[pandr32]

22. I am currently loving infused black teas

I have been ordering loose tea in 16 oz bags.
Our latest favorite is a Sri Lankan black tea with dried raspberries, blackberry leaves and rose petals.
Do a quick search and look at what comes up. Some are organic, but the Elmwood Inn fine teas (lots of varieties) have been consistently wonderful.

[ananda]

20. Yes, Amazon is very good with quality organic stuff.

Thank goodness. I'm trying to avoid pesticides and
processed food like the plague.

[pandr32]

23. I completely agree

I don't know what we would do without them. Yesterday, while shopping for some produce we noticed the local store shelves were almost completely bare again. This last happened last Spring.
Thankfully we have local farms, but we needed a few items like potatoes and apples--not found here in Hawaii. We did a quick walk through the store and found most staples were gone.
Even though we live in the middle of the Pacific the grains and flour we receive from Amazon are always wrapped well and arrive in fresh condition.
I completely agree about "quality organic stuff". I am a whole-real foods enthusiast.

[Bengus81]

4. LOL...they just want a piece of a very lucrative PIE

This won't reduce drug costs one cent and that's what's important, not Amazon jumping into another sector. It's will also be another way to sell people into their PRIME contract for $120 per year. Sure...it offers two day shipping but hell,you can get stuff most times in two days or three because they have warehouses all over the place. They're in the process right now building a huge new warehouse just ten miles from my front door, it will be operational next spring. Prime movie channel IMO is just a vehicle to get you to RENT movies at a ridiculous price once you've watched all the free "B" horror flicks.

I've built computers for years and rarely buy the overpriced components that Amazon sells--many if not most of them are from third party sellers. Last time I bought computer parts a couple of years ago was a motherboard which are fragile and sensitive. It arrives in the dead of winter ONLY in it's own box with the shipping label slapped on the outside of it. It worked but it could have just as easily not worked.

[secondwind]

5. I'm afraid that Amazon is going to get too TOO BIG.

I don't think I want pharmacies to go bankrupt. just my two cents

[JudyM]

19. Same here, though aren't they already...

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Good medicine depends on good diagnosis

So what's the use of AmazonPharma? My doctors were wrong 80% of the time which is why I gave up on them 20 years ago.

[TryLogic]

10. I love Amazon. And, anyone can sell on Amazon.

Make something in your garage or kitchen, sell it all over the country, or the world perhaps.

This model supports people who actually produce something rather than straight retailers who just buy wholesale, markup the price, and resell it.

[RobinA]

11. If This Means

branded drugs become more affordable, I'm there. I would give anything to ditch these generics and take the real thing.

[VA_Jill]

14. Normally

I am not a fan of mail order pharmacies. Ask me sometime about my friend Jaz's mom and what happened to her because of one. I'm also not a fan of the big chain ones. CVS is slowwwww no matter when you go there, and lately Walgreen's has gotten the same way. And I can tell you stories about Walmart from my days as a home health nurse. Ugh. I currently deal with a local pharmacy and I like the personal touch there, even though their hours are sometimes inconvenient....closing before their stated hour of 6 pm and even earlier when the high school next door has a football or basketball game, at noon on Saturdays, and all day Sunday. That said, I love Amazon and we're a Prime family so I would consider it. However, I tried to explore their pharmacy site this morning and got sent in a circle. But I'd consider it if they'd take my Medicare Part D......

[EarthFirst]

15. Is AmazonCannabis far behind?

Hmmm...

[JudyM]

18. Probably soon, you're right!

[Javaman]

16. Amazon will eventually be like Mom on Futurama. nt