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 accessible at One Medical places in varied components of the Los Angeles space, reminiscent of Downtown L.A., Beverly Hills, Lengthy Seaside and West Hollywood. The corporate plans to broaden to different places sooner or later.
Whereas an fascinating foray, the thought of medical kiosks is hardly new, say business observers. Furthermore, the problem of bodily upkeep of the kiosks will not be a small one. However given Amazon’s scale, individuals are undoubtedly listening to the announcement as they’ve all different Amazon well being information prior to now. One professional identified that the corporate is exaggerating its skill to learn 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 medicines, together with for infections, bronchial asthma, hypertension, diabetes and different power circumstances. They won’t present managed substances or specialty medicines. The stock at every kiosk will likely be specialised to the prescribing patterns of every location.
To entry medicines 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 methodology, whether or not that be by way of their insurance coverage or bank card. Sufferers will have the ability to view upfront prices, reminiscent of accessible 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 cellphone 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, 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, usually due to the friction between analysis and drugs 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 medicines they want quicker, with the scientific assist they count on from a pharmacy.”
Whereas the kiosks might look like an awesome concept in principle, at the least one investor thinks they are going to be deceivingly troublesome to execute.
“There’s simply a whole lot 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,” mentioned Michael Greeley, cofounder and normal companion of Flare Capital Companions, in an interview.
There’s additionally a cleanliness drawback following the Covid-19 pandemic, as individuals might not need to be touching a machine for medicines. And sufferers might want extra privateness than the kiosks will enable — although having them positioned in medical settings like One Medical might provide slightly 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 wager in opposition to Amazon.”
Others are rather less skeptical of those kiosks, reminiscent of Dan Zohorsky, managing companion at Healthworx, the innovation and funding arm of insurer CareFirst. He referred to as the kiosks modern and mentioned they’ve the potential to handle 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 — wherein sufferers should first go to a supplier’s workplace, after which journey to a retail pharmacy — has solely grow to be worse because the variety of retail pharmacies within the US has shrunk dramatically during the last 10 years.”
One other healthcare professional mentioned this may doubtless enhance income for Amazon.
“From a affected person habits [point of view], Amazon’s kiosks may function a teaser to bridge between a medicine’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 doubtless pinpointed income leakage between OneMedical and PillPack, and that is the answer: if you end up unwell, ready a day for remedy 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 way of One Medical places. The kiosks additionally need to be stocked effectively sufficient to fill every affected person’s complete prescription, not simply a part of it, he added. Lastly, the price of the prescriptions need to be akin to current allotting places.
“Shoppers have grow to be 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 acutely 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 straightforward to make use of, and the prescriptions should be allotted rapidly. Shoppers will likely be much less affected person ready in line for a kiosk versus the pharmacy counter. He emphasised that a big remedy stock is important — if sufferers can’t fill all their prescriptions on the kiosk, they’ll doubtless stick to their normal pharmacy.
The kiosks may even need to be positioned outdoors 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 positioned in prosperous areas,” he argued.
When requested if Amazon expects to broaden 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 need to be in semi-supervised environments. And if somebody wants assist or can’t work the machine, there’s a particular person there for assist.
“I might get nervous allotting medication as a result of there’s the actual threat of abuse,” he added. “I believe the extra scientific it will get, the extra nervous I might get concerning the mannequin, at the least initially, till you actually study shopper habits. Do individuals actually need to change this fashion with healthcare?”
Picture: Flickr, Cerillion Skyline
