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 places of work so sufferers can entry their prescriptions instantly after their appointment.
Beginning in December, these kiosks will likely be out there at One Medical places in varied components of the Los Angeles space, resembling Downtown L.A., Beverly Hills, Lengthy Seashore and West Hollywood. The corporate plans to increase to different places sooner or later.
Whereas an attention-grabbing foray, the concept of medical kiosks is hardly new, say business observers. Furthermore, the problem of bodily upkeep of the kiosks might not be a small one. However given Amazon’s scale, persons are positively taking note of the announcement as they’ve all different Amazon well being information previously. One skilled identified that the corporate is exaggerating its capability to profit entry in resource-strained areas of the nation on condition that it’s tied to One Medical places which are 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 power situations. They won’t present managed substances or specialty drugs. The stock at every kiosk will likely 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 collaborating 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 methodology, whether or not that be by way of their insurance coverage or bank card. Sufferers will be capable of view upfront prices, resembling out there reductions and insurance coverage copays. They’ll obtain a QR code to scan on the kiosk. If they’ve any questions, they’ll 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 therapy: the necessity to make a second journey to the pharmacy following a physician’s go to, based on Hannah McClellan, VP of operations at Amazon Pharmacy.
“Practically one-third of prescriptions within the U.S. are by no means crammed, typically due to the friction between prognosis and medicine pickup,” McClellan mentioned in an electronic mail. “By bringing the pharmacy expertise on to the physician’s workplace, we’re serving to sufferers get the drugs they want quicker, with the scientific assist they anticipate from a pharmacy.”
Whereas the kiosks might look like an important concept in concept, at the very least one investor thinks they are going to be deceivingly tough to execute.
“There’s simply a number of impediments to the mannequin… the price of operating these kiosks, operating a community of kiosks with energy, upkeep, repairs, may be very, very costly — it’s exceedingly costly,” mentioned Michael Greeley, cofounder and basic associate 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 permit — although having them positioned in medical settings like One Medical might provide a little bit extra privateness, Greeley famous.
He added that this idea isn’t essentially new. A number of different firms have tried to launch comparable fashions and failed. For instance, major care firm Ahead launched CarePods in malls and workplace buildings, the place sufferers may get their blood drawn and throat swabbed. The corporate shut down in 2024. HealthSpot additionally provided telemedicine kiosks, however shut down in 2016.
Nonetheless, 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, resembling Dan Zohorsky, managing associate at Healthworx, the innovation and funding arm of insurer CareFirst. He referred to as the kiosks modern and mentioned they’ve the potential to deal with challenges with entry to pharmaceuticals.
“Inconvenience and a clunky expertise are a key driver of sufferers not filling or abandoning their prescriptions within the US,” Zohorsky mentioned. “The unenviable two-stop expertise — during which sufferers should first go to a supplier’s workplace, after which journey to a retail pharmacy — has solely turn into worse because the variety of retail pharmacies within the US has shrunk dramatically over the past 10 years.”
One other healthcare skilled mentioned it will probably enhance income for Amazon.
“From a affected person habits (perspective), Amazon’s kiosks may additionally function a teaser to bridge between a drugs’s first fill and any recurring refills by way of the PillPack acquisition,” mentioned Warren Templeton, managing director at Health2047, a enterprise studio for the American Medical Affiliation. “Amazon probably pinpointed income leakage between OneMedical and PillPack, and that is the answer: if you find yourself unwell, ready a day for medicine deliveries is much less fascinating than operating to your native pharmacy.”
What is going to make Amazon’s kiosks profitable?
Amazon must hit three marks to ensure that the kiosks to achieve success, based on Templeton. First, they should seize gross sales by One Medical places. The kiosks additionally should be stocked nicely sufficient to fill every affected person’s complete prescription, not simply a part of it, he added. Lastly, the price of the prescriptions should be akin to current allotting places.
“Customers have turn into accustomed to buying prescriptions. Completely different PBMs get totally different pricing, which is straight tied to the pharmacy’s location,” he mentioned. “Those that are worth aware might search level of sale transparency, or will probably 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. Customers will likely 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 probably persist with their traditional pharmacy.
The kiosks can even should be positioned outdoors of One Medical clinics, based on Zohorsky.
“One Medical is a ‘membership’ based mostly 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 positioned in prosperous areas,” he argued.
When requested if Amazon expects to increase 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 should be in semi-supervised environments. And if somebody wants assist or can’t work the machine, there’s a individual there for assist.
“I’d get nervous allotting medication as a result of there’s the actual danger of abuse,” he added. “I believe the extra scientific it will get, the extra nervous I’d get in regards to the mannequin, at the very least initially, till you actually find out about client habits. Do individuals actually need to change this manner with healthcare?”
Picture: Flickr, Cerillion Skyline
