Special Delivery
I came across an interesting article today about the potential evolution of retail pharmacy. Apparently Amazon is looking into providing this service for people one day. As a consumer, it almost sounds like a no-brainier. I can imagine someone exclaiming, “So you’re telling me I can just log on to my Amazon Prime account and get my refills shipped to me in 2 days or so?! That’s amazing!!!” That would certainly be something. Instead of going to the pharmacy and waiting in line just to pick up a refill of something you get every month sounds too good to be true.
Granted, the article points out that this is a very preliminary idea, no where near a done deal. But thinking about all that goes into even filling a prescription brings up many questions, and some are addressed in the article as well. Would the doctor send the Rx to Amazon like they do with a patient’s mail-order pharmacy or will the patient have to scan it into their Amazon profile? And once the Rx gets to Amazon, does it go into some sort of secure portal where no one else has access, there are HIPAA guidelines to consider anyways. Let’s say Amazon has this covered, then there are issues involving insurance; like how much will a company like Blue Cross charge a patient to use Amazon as opposed to a local retail or independent pharmacy. What about licensing as a vendor and even liability if a patient gets a wrong medication and perhaps dies? There are also different State Board of Pharmacies with different stipulations for filling Rxs for patients that are located in different state, and these are just the issues I’m aware of as a technician. There are a lot of logistical issues that cause a move into this industry to not be quite as seamless as the merger with a grocery chain.
There was an interesting point made in the Market Watch article that stated Amazon’s algorithm could be used to tell if a patient who may be taking a depression medication is purchasing self-helping books and could perhaps alert their doctor. Now it is incredibly important for a patient to get their medications at the same location in order for the pharmacist to check for any interactions or potential overdoses. So this could be potentially helpful for keeping patients safe. There is definatley a discussion to be had, and it will be fun to watch and see where this goes.
What do you think? Should Amazon dabble in yet another industry that could make our lives easier or does it just give them more control over us? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!