Amazon isn’t any stranger to experimenting in healthcare even when it means acknowledging failure. Its newest daring enterprise? In-office pharmacy kiosks at One Medical workplaces so sufferers can entry their prescriptions instantly after their appointment.
Beginning in December, these kiosks might be accessible at One Medical places in varied elements of the Los Angeles space, akin to Downtown L.A., Beverly Hills, Lengthy Seashore and West Hollywood. The corporate plans to develop to different places sooner or later.
Whereas an attention-grabbing foray, the thought of medical kiosks is hardly new, say trade observers. Furthermore, the problem of bodily upkeep of the kiosks will not be a small one. However given Amazon’s scale, individuals are undoubtedly being attentive to the announcement as they’ve all different Amazon well being information previously. One professional identified that the corporate is exaggerating its capability to profit entry in resource-strained areas of the nation provided that it’s tied to One Medical places which might be largely city and prosperous.
However first issues first. What’s within the kiosks?
The kiosks will carry generally prescribed drugs, together with for infections, bronchial asthma, hypertension, diabetes and different continual circumstances. They won’t present managed substances or specialty drugs. The stock at every kiosk might be specialised to the prescribing patterns of every location.
To entry drugs on the kiosks, sufferers will create an Amazon Pharmacy account, schedule an appointment at a taking part One Medical location and ask the supplier to ship a prescription to Amazon Pharmacy.
The affected person can then take a look at on the Amazon app and select a kiosk for pickup and pay with their most well-liked technique, whether or not that be by way of their insurance coverage or bank card. Sufferers will be capable to view upfront prices, akin to accessible reductions and insurance coverage copays. They’ll obtain a QR code to scan on the kiosk. If they’ve any questions, they will join with an Amazon pharmacist for a video or telephone session proper on the kiosk or later.
Amazon launched the kiosks to take away a standard barrier to accessing remedy: the necessity to make a second journey to the pharmacy following a health care provider’s go to, in keeping with Hannah McClellan, VP of operations at Amazon Pharmacy.
“Almost one-third of prescriptions within the U.S. are by no means stuffed, typically due to the friction between analysis and medicine pickup,” McClellan stated in an e-mail. “By bringing the pharmacy expertise on to the physician’s workplace, we’re serving to sufferers get the drugs they want sooner, with the medical help they anticipate from a pharmacy.”
Whereas the kiosks might seem to be an excellent concept in principle, at the least one investor thinks they are going to be deceivingly troublesome to execute.
“There’s simply lots of impediments to the mannequin… the price of working these kiosks, working a community of kiosks with energy, upkeep, repairs, may be very, very costly — it’s exceedingly costly,” stated Michael Greeley, cofounder and normal accomplice of Flare Capital Companions, in an interview.
There may be additionally a cleanliness downside following the Covid-19 pandemic, as individuals might not need to be touching a machine for drugs. And sufferers might want extra privateness than the kiosks will enable — although having them positioned in medical settings like One Medical might supply just a little extra privateness, Greeley famous.
He added that this idea isn’t essentially new. A number of different firms have tried to launch related fashions and failed. For instance, major care firm Ahead launched CarePods in malls and workplace buildings, the place sufferers might get their blood drawn and throat swabbed. The corporate shut down in 2024. HealthSpot additionally provided telemedicine kiosks, however shut down in 2016.
Nevertheless, Amazon could also be in a greater place to scale these kiosks than a few of these different firms, with Greeley including that he would “by no means guess in opposition to Amazon.”
Others are rather less skeptical of those kiosks, akin to Dan Zohorsky, managing accomplice at Healthworx, the innovation and funding arm of insurer CareFirst. He known as the kiosks modern and stated they’ve the potential to deal with challenges with entry to prescribed drugs.
“Inconvenience and a clunky expertise are a key driver of sufferers not filling or abandoning their prescriptions within the US,” Zohorsky stated. “The unenviable two-stop expertise — wherein sufferers should first go to a supplier’s workplace, after which journey to a retail pharmacy — has solely change into worse because the variety of retail pharmacies within the US has shrunk dramatically during the last 10 years.”
One other healthcare professional stated it will doubtless increase income for Amazon.
“From a affected person conduct [point of view], Amazon’s kiosks can also function a teaser to bridge between a drugs’s first fill and any recurring refills by way of the PillPack acquisition,” stated Warren Templeton, managing director at Health2047, a enterprise studio for the American Medical Affiliation. “Amazon doubtless pinpointed income leakage between OneMedical and PillPack, and that is the answer: if you end up unwell, ready a day for medicine deliveries is much less fascinating than working to your native pharmacy.”
What’s going to make Amazon’s kiosks profitable?
Amazon must hit three marks to ensure that the kiosks to achieve success, in keeping with Templeton. First, they should seize gross sales by One Medical places. The kiosks additionally must be stocked nicely sufficient to fill every affected person’s whole prescription, not simply a part of it, he added. Lastly, the price of the prescriptions must be corresponding to current shelling out places.
“Shoppers have change into accustomed to buying prescriptions. Completely different PBMs get completely different pricing, which is instantly tied to the pharmacy’s location,” he stated. “Those that are value aware might search level of sale transparency, or will doubtless flip to on-line pharmacy apps.”
Zohorsky added that the kiosks and app should be simple to make use of, and the prescriptions should be distributed rapidly. Shoppers might be much less affected person ready in line for a kiosk versus the pharmacy counter. He emphasised that a big medicine stock is important — if sufferers can’t fill all their prescriptions on the kiosk, they’ll doubtless keep on with their standard pharmacy.
The kiosks will even must be situated exterior of One Medical clinics, in keeping with Zohorsky.
“One Medical is a ‘membership’ primarily based major care mannequin that requires members to pay an out-of-pocket price to entry care. The characterization that these kiosks will enhance entry in ‘pharmacy deserts’ is deceptive, as One Medical clinics are primarily situated in prosperous areas,” he argued.
When requested if Amazon expects to develop the kiosks to different suppliers sooner or later, McClellan famous that the plan is to “discover enlargement to extra places.”
Greeley argued that for the kiosks to achieve success, they must be in semi-supervised environments. And if somebody wants assist or can’t work the machine, there’s a particular person there for help.
“I might get nervous shelling out medication as a result of there’s the true danger of abuse,” he added. “I believe the extra medical it will get, the extra nervous I might get in regards to the mannequin, at the least initially, till you actually study client conduct. Do individuals actually need to change this manner with healthcare?”
Picture: Flickr, Cerillion Skyline
