{"id":29898,"date":"2020-12-31T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T08:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/?p=29898"},"modified":"2025-01-06T11:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T04:00:44","slug":"amazon-now-selling-prescription-medications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/amazon-now-selling-prescription-medications\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Now Selling Prescription Medications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon is well-known for acquiring and pricing out their competition, but with the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, they\u2019re venturing into the healthcare market \u2014 unfamiliar territory before now. They can compete with prices from more established online pharmacies like eDrugstore.com, but it remains to be seen if they can match the value eDrugstore offers its customers for their money.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t always about you, Ben, geez.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite its reputation as an online retail juggernaut, Amazon\u2019s presence in the healthcare market has been pretty limited \u2014 mainly over-the-counter drugs and an infinite variety of dietary supplements for everything that\u2019s supposedly wrong with you (not you, personally; you\u2019re fine!). That\u2019s all changing now, though, because the site that has delivered literally everything in two days or less can now do the same for prescription drugs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, this November the company launched two new pharmacy-related ventures: Amazon Pharmacy<\/a> and the Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit<\/a>. Both are designed to entice new customers by doing what Amazon does best: making things simple.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s It Work?<\/h3>\n

With Amazon Pharmacy, customers sign up for a secure pharmacy account that is separate from any other Amazon accounts they may have. The signup process is, predictably, easy to get through. After entering your vitals, you\u2019ll be asked a short battery of questions about your medical history, including any medications you\u2019re on, diseases or conditions you\u2019ve been diagnosed with, and any drug or food allergies you have.<\/p>\n

From there, you\u2019ll have the opportunity to enter your health insurance information and how you\u2019d like to submit your prescription. While Amazon deftly handles the process of filling<\/em> a prescription, getting<\/em> that prescription requires some legwork on your part.<\/p>\n

Amazon offers three ways to submit a prescription:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You can contact your doctor and ask them to phone\/fax it in,<\/li>\n
  2. You can request that Amazon Pharmacy contact your doctor to get the prescription, or<\/li>\n
  3. You can request that Amazon Pharmacy transfer an existing prescription from another pharmacy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Downside<\/h3>\n

    While Amazon Pharmacy can fill prescriptions for most brand and generic drugs, they do have a list of medications they don\u2019t fill or deliver. You can find this list and examples of each in the table below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
    Amazon Pharmacy Won't Fill or Deliver...<\/th>Examples<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    Compounded medications<\/td>Magic Mouthwash, hormone replacement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Schedule II controlled medications<\/td>Most opioids, ADHD medications like Adderall<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Diabetic testing and administration supplies<\/td>Test strips, glucose meters, pen needles<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    REMS Medications (high-risk)<\/td>Isotretinoin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Vitamins<\/td>Multi-vitamin tablets for kids or adults; prenatal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Over-the-counter drugs<\/td>Benadryl, Miralax, Nexium<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Medical devices<\/td>Braces, insulin pumps, nebulizers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Vaccines<\/td>Zostavax, tetanus, seasonal flu, COVID-19<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Specialty medications requiring special storage<\/td>Humira, Enbrel, Entyvio, Stelara<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

    Right now, Amazon Pharmacy delivers to only 45 states (sorry, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Minnesota), and they don\u2019t offer some services found in most other retail and online pharmacies, such as automatic refills and 90-day fills.<\/p>\n

    In practice, we found that asking Amazon to contact your doctor has limitations even for some medications they otherwise dispense. For example, there was no trouble when we asked them to reach out about a Lipitor script (for high cholesterol) but doing the same thing with a sildenafil<\/a> (Viagra<\/a>, for erectile dysfunction<\/a>) script generated an alert that they can\u2019t request that medication on your behalf.<\/p>\n

    \"Amazon
    That\u2019s right, we did the research.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    This is where telehealth providers like eDrugstore.com really shine. Every prescription we fill includes a free confidential consultation with a telehealth physician licensed in your state, as well as a prescription when medically appropriate. With a nationwide network of telehealth doctors, eDrugstore promises a smooth prescription experience from initial consultation to delivery of your medication<\/a> right to your door at no extra charge.<\/p>\n

    Assurance For Those Without Insurance<\/h3>\n

    While Amazon accepts most prescription drug insurance plans, not everyone is fortunate enough to have that as an option. Without insurance, patients bear the full brunt of sky-high prescription drug costs.<\/p>\n

    \"Uninsured<\/p>\n

    To make it more affordable for uninsured patients to get the prescription drugs they need, Amazon is also rolling out the Prime Prescription Savings Benefit program. Amazon Prime members are automatically enrolled in this service at no added cost, even if they aren\u2019t Amazon Pharmacy customers. The discount card saves patients money at over 50,000 pharmacies<\/a> \u2014 up to 80% on generic drugs and 40% on brand-name.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s important to note that this service is not insurance and can\u2019t be combined with insurance. If you have Rx insurance, you can opt to not use it and pay the cash price with the Prime Rx card discount. This may be advantageous if your insurer won\u2019t pay for certain non-preferred drugs, or if they limit coverage for them. In some cases, the discounted cash price may be much lower than what your insurance copay would have been.<\/p>\n

    That said, patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, or other state- and federal-funded health care programs aren\u2019t eligible to use the Prime Rx discount, even if the prescription is processed outside of their insurance benefits (as a cash-paying uninsured patient, for example). There is also a pretty hefty list of medications that aren\u2019t eligible for the discount, which you can read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Finally, Amazon is making pricing information readily available whether you have an Amazon Pharmacy or Prime account or not. This kind of price transparency has been championed by other sites like GoodRx.com<\/a> and eDrugstore.com, and it\u2019s nice to see that Amazon adheres to the same philosophy.<\/p>\n

    An Uncertain Future<\/h3>\n

    \"Future.\"<\/h3>\n

    This isn\u2019t the first incursion Amazon has made into the healthcare arena. Previous ventures range from an employee medical clinic company that struggled to get off the ground, all the way to Amazon\u2019s acquisition of the already-successful PillPack<\/a>, a pharmacy that dispenses daily medication packs for patients who take many different drugs a day.<\/p>\n

    Amazon Pharmacy\u2019s future looks good, but it\u2019s still uncertain whether it\u2019ll disrupt the pharmacy industry or just take market share from the other big retail chains. It all depends on the level of service they can offer their customers, which at present is still a bit lacking.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s Something to Be Said For Experience\"Experience\"<\/h3>\n

    Full-service healthcare facilitators like eDrugstore.com<\/a> already have decades of experience in the telehealth and telepharmacy fields and are ready to cater to their customers\u2019 needs. Maybe you have a prescription you\u2019d like to fill without making a trip to a brick-and-mortar pharmacy. Or maybe you\u2019re dealing with a health condition that you\u2019re embarrassed to talk about with a doctor in-person, like erectile dysfunction<\/a> or hair restoration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Whatever your healthcare needs, eDrugstore.com has something to offer you. Don’t wait \u2014 contact us today to set up your free, confidential consultation!<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Amazon is well-known for acquiring and pricing out their competition, but with the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, they\u2019re venturing into the healthcare market \u2014 unfamiliar territory before now. They can compete with prices from more established online pharmacies like eDrugstore.com, but it remains to be seen if they can match the value eDrugstore offers its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":29902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t