Amazon Launches Amazon Pharmacy For Prescription Medicine Delivery (theverge.com) 36
Amazon is making its biggest push into the healthcare industry yet with the launch today of Amazon Pharmacy: a new service offering home delivery for prescription medication. From a report: Customers can sign up to the new store by creating a "secure pharmacy profile," with the option of adding information about their health insurance, any outstanding medical issues like allergies, and any regular prescriptions. The store will offer a range of "generic and brand-name drugs," reports CNBC, including "commonly prescribed drugs like insulin, triamcinolone steroid creams, metformin for controlling blood sugar, and sumatriptan for migraines." Notably, the pharmacy will not sell Schedule II medications, which includes many common opioids like Oxycontin. As usual for Amazon, Prime members will get a number of advantages over regular customers. These perks include free, two-day delivery on orders and discounts on medication. Amazon claims Prime members will be able to save "up to 80 percent off generic and 40 percent off brand name medications when paying without insurance." Prime members will also be able to save on medication bought in person from over 50,000 pharmacies across the US, including Rite Aid, CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens.
Not New (Score:2)
Amazon bought Pillpack in 2018. So maybe now they're not prepacking the medicine into little pouches for some customers. They bought an overpriced startup just to gain the credentials to be a pharmacy? Seems like they had an easier route to do that.
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Seems like they had an easier route to do that.
When you have billions of dollars, you don't have to find an easy route, you just buy the whole damn road and call it a day.
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But now they have an online pharmacy and nobody else can do what Pillpack may have patented in order to encroach on their market?
Re:Not New (Score:5, Interesting)
Amazon bought Pillpack strictly for the state licensing. Pillpack was licensed in all 50 states for mail order prescriptions. One could imagine the regulatory and political flack Amazon would get as it applied for licenses in each state. Far easier and faster to gobble up a tiny corporation with the licenses intact then to have to appear at local hearings, and participate in the "pay-to-play” political game. Like how people buy liquor stores for the licenses and then transfer them. It's not easy, but easier than trying to get a brand new liquor license
Pill pack's 'innovation' of putting pills in little baggies for each had been done before, indeed there are machines that are built to do just that. Usually for institutions like hospitals and prisons.
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Amazon can go Fuck themselves as far as I'm concerned. All they are interested in is forcing every pharmacy on the planet out of business.
If Amazon can accomplish that with its "monopolistic" low prices, I will recommend Bezos for the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is too bad we retailed Pharmacy. (Score:5, Interesting)
My main pharmacy is located in my grocery store. The Pharmacist has a Doctorate of Pharmacy is well versed (Better than many MDs) in different types of illnesses and knows what drugs can treat what type of illness, including over the counter drugs. If you are not feeling well but not bad enough to justify going to the Doctor. You can go to your pharmacist and they may be able to give you what to take and what not to take, they also can check your medical history and make sure you don't pick something that you may have an adverse reaction too.
But because the Pharmacies found it profitable to be located in a retail settings, most people just see the Pharmacist as some guy who just goes and picks up medicine from the shelf, counts them and puts them in a bottle.
I fear Amazon will further make people consider a Pharmacist to be just a retail job. This will have the consequence of raising the costs of health care. Because more people will have to go to Medical Doctors for issues that other Health Care Professionals can better take care of.
Re:It is too bad we retailed Pharmacy. (Score:5, Insightful)
they also can check your medical history and make sure you don't pick something that you may have an adverse reaction to.
You know, you're absolutely right. While intellectually I know that, every time I'm sent to pick up something for my wife and I'm told it'll be ready in X minutes, I always have an emotional reaction of annoyance. "How hard is it to count out 30x pink pills into a bottle?" That's because I'm right next to the cereal isle. I immediately remember that the pharmacist is going to do a history lookup and cross-reference to ensure the meds won't kill her, and that they're also reviewing the dosage, frequency, and other details to explain how she should take them.
The tragedies pharmacists prevent every day shouldn't be overlooked.
Re:It is too bad we retailed Pharmacy. (Score:4, Insightful)
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The computer does offer a Drug to Drug Interaction warning. However there is a lot of cases where the Drug to Drug Interaction is what is needed to happen, or a case where the patient is willing to take the risk, because the interaction chance is low enough or cases where the Pharmacists knows something that isn't in the database yet, as well may be able to aid the patient with information the computer doesn't know. Say the patient is getting a refill and they see that they are also getting something ove
Re:It is too bad we retailed Pharmacy. (Score:4, Funny)
So you're the one [youtube.com]!
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Just curious, how is the pharmacist better at drug interactions than a computer? The pharmacist has no additional information beyond what the computer has, and the computer never misremembers what drugs interact negatively.
Oh, I don't pretend the job couldn't be computerized, and I'm sure that pharmacists use databases. The answer is probably something like: a pharmacist is better at drug interactions than a computer in the same way that a person is better at driving a car than a computer.
What I mean by that is that a computer lacks context and understanding. Many drugs have multiple purposes, so a flat statement of "patient X is on med Y" doesn't necessarily convey why. A second med might not interfere with all function
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This will have the consequence of raising the costs of health care. Because more people will have to go to Medical Doctors for issues that other Health Care Professionals can better take care of.
I'm rather skeptical of that claim. Unless you're getting something over the counter you'd need to see a doctor first in order to get a prescription that a pharmacist can fill. Presumably Amazon would need to employ pharmacists in order to fill prescriptions and those individuals would be doing the same checks and following the same protocols they normally do.
If you have a good relationship with a local pharmacist I'd suggest you continue using that, but that's not something that everyone does. Pharmacis
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Health Care Costs are complex. However Medical Doctors cost a lot of money, about $200 an hour. A PA/NP/RN who can do 80% of what the doctor can do, will cost about $100 an hour. Your Pharmacist (who is making money off of drug distribution sales) will often give free advice, but if you factor in the drugs they will probably be costing roughly $75 an hour.
But beware of doing medical research by yourself for yourself. Don't be the WebMD guy. Because you may be treating the wrong illness. And a 5 minute
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I have never in my entire life consulted a pharmacist.
They may serve a pseudo-intermediary purpose when doctors are unavailable but it was the doctor who wrote the prescription, and all they need do is fulfil it (with various checks to catch human error).
If I'm worried about something, I'll ask a doctor.
If the doctor tells me what to have, and I need to, I'll get the pharmacist to give it to me.
If the pharmacist queries it, he needs to query it with the doctor.
Otherwise, they sell cough remedies, combs and
Re: It is too bad we retailed Pharmacy. (Score:2)
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That's the point. You don't consult a pharmacist, but the pharmacist serves to double check.
After all, while your doctor hopes to check against drug allergies, they can forget to do so, or not realize they need something else instead. The pharmacist needs ot realize that (which is why you should go to the same pharmacy if you can as they will have a full record, but in places with EHR they can look it up).
The pharmacist's job is to know the drug interactions and if the drug will work well for you. If you're
Re:It is too bad we retailed Pharmacy. (Score:4, Interesting)
They also definitely served as a first line of defense for the doctors regarding any issues with the medication or minor problems that could be solved with something off-the-shelf. When we were kids he definitely saved my folks a number of doctors visits with occasionally wacky off-label uses for over-the-counter stuff.
His business eventually got absorbed by a chain, which then in turn got absorbed by a larger national chain. I don't have a lot of pity for Wallgreens or CVS, companies like Amazon will roll them the same way they rolled over independent pharmacies 40-50 years ago.
I do have pity for the Pharmacists and Doctors. Pharmacists will have their knowledge and experience, the requirements and bill for which is not small, commoditized even further. And Doctors will have to pick up the slack because a pharmacist working in an Amazon sweatshop undoubtedly is going to have to meet some unreasonable productivity goal that won't leave them time to do much more than the minimum due diligence.
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You can go to your pharmacist and they may be able to give you what to take and what not to take
In most (all?) states they can be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license if they do. The AMA is incredibly protective of their members' profits.
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"Will not" sell Schedule II drugs? (Score:3)
More likely it could not figure out how to sell them because of rules surrounding how those prescriptions need to be handled - at least in the US.
I'm sure people will use this... but I'll stick to the neighborhood pharmacy. Big Retail has already sucked the soul out of too many local businesses, and rarely to the customers' benefit.
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I'd use it (Score:3)
I'd use this service if the prices are reasonable.
As long as they can screen out the counterfeit meds so you don't end up with 'Medfourmin' instead of 'Metformin' or 'Insulyn®' instead of insulin.
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As long as they can screen out the counterfeit meds so you don't end up with 'Medfourmin' instead of 'Metformin' or 'Insulyn®' instead of insulin.
Sold by "Lucky Tiger Fentanyl Deals 1998" and fulfilled by Amazon.
Also available from the following sellers, some without Prime Free Shipping:
"Bob's Rx Blowouts"
"Your No. 1 Dealer"
"Pills Bounty Provider"
"Refurbished and Overstock Drug Warehouse"
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Half the shit on Amazon now is just items bought at retail stores and marked up a few bucks. People are too lazy to notice that frequently Amazon does not have the best prices.
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what about states where they can make stuff Prime (Score:2)
what about states where they can make stuff Prime only for pharmacy
CVS & Walgreens have very expensive Rx as comp (Score:3)
to my local neighborhood pharmacy. But OptumRx (the PBM aka pharmacy benefit manager owned by UnitedHealthcare) restricts my local pharmacy to dispense a 31 day supply of my meds, while, if I am willing to 3x as much for a single day's dose, I can get a 90 day supply from CVS or Walgreens, or sent directly to me by OptumRx.
OptumRx says that the pricing is this way "because that's the policy of UnitedHealthcare" as if UnitedHealthcare and OptumRx aren't the same damned company. When I asked UnitedHealthcare about this they say "because OptumRx enforces the Rx rules of your insurance policy." They clearly enjoy talking in circles and figure I'll just give in.
I won't.
Read the Privacy Policy carefully, folks. (Score:2)
UK warns consumers over Amazon (Score:2)
How long will it be before Amazon is applying the same standards to drugs which are being sold through their platform? It's one thing to get counterfit and fake electronics (which can be life threating from the fires that sometimes start), it's quite another to be selling immitation prescribed drugs what may end up killing peop
Huge (Score:1)
Counterfeits? (Score:2)
I can see it now:
Seller: asfdlkja;sldkfj
Manufacturer: plkjasdf;lkjgha;sldkfj
Seller ratings: (none yet)
What could possibly go wrong?