Amazon Continues Healthcare Push With RxPass
Amazon is offering Prime members discounted prescription drugs, its latest venture into the healthcare sector.
Announced Tuesday (Jan. 24), the company's RxPass provides patients that use the Amazon Pharmacy access to generic medications for $5 per month, delivered to their homes at no cost.
"Navigating insurance can be a maze and getting to the pharmacy a burden," Dr. Vin Gupta, Amazon Pharmacy's chief medical officer, said in a news release.
"Sometimes that has led to poor outcomes," Gupta added. "New medications don’t get filled, refills don’t get picked up, and patients suffer. Aspects of our healthcare system make what should be easy, difficult."
Amazon says the service is designed for people who take multiple medications per day and is meant to help patients manage chronic conditions such as anxiety or high blood pressure.
Amazon's announcement is the latest example of the company's broader push into health offerings, part of a retailer healthcare movement that also involves companies such as Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS.
Last year, Amazon purchased tech-powered primary care provider One Medical for $3.9 billion, giving it access to a service that provides in-person, digital, and virtual care services.
Walmart spent part of 2022 laying the groundwork for Walmart Health locations adjacent to its Walmart Supercenters to be opened this year. The company also bought virtual health provider MeMD in 2021 and last fall began offering over-the-counter hearing aid sales.
As PYMNTS noted earlier this month, CVS is apparently planning to expand its healthcare offering by acquiring Oak Street Health in a deal that would value the company at $10 billion.
That purchase would further expand the pharmacy chain's move into the primary care field, following last year's $8 billion acquisition of Signify Health.
And this week saw Dollar General test the waters of affordable healthcare with the launch of mobile clinics, with services provided by DocGo On-Demand that include annual physicals, acute illness, urgent care needs, vaccinations, and lab testing,
"These clinics demonstrate our ability and desire to work with our customers to bring affordable health and wellness closer to home while equally establishing Dollar General as a trusted partner where customers can access health services," Dr. Albert Wu, Dollar General’s chief medical officer, said in an announcement emailed to PYMNTS.
To start, the three pilot locations are all in the vicinity of Dollar General’s Goodlettsville, Tennessee headquarters, but also mark a footprint expansion for DocGo.