• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Urgent care facilities are increasingly replacing primary care doctors for younger patients, making them a prime target for Amazon Pharmacy’s growth plans.

On Nov. 13 the delivery service announced a partnership with digital platform Experity to offer its prescription fulfillment service as a choice at 22 of the top 25 U.S. urgent care providers. Clients of Experity, which serves the urgent care industry exclusively, include CityMD, HCA Healthcare, American Family Care, CRH Healthcare, ME MedExpress and Baycare.

Same-day and next-day prescription delivery direct to patient homes, as provided by Amazon Pharmacy, can actually improve healthcare outcomes, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. While 23% of prescriptions sent to brick-and-mortar pharmacies don’t get picked up by patients, this abandonment rate drops to 2% when using same-day direct-to-home service, the study found.

Amazon Pharmacy says nearly half of U.S. customers are expected to have same-day prescription delivery options by the end of 2025, with Amazon Prime members also eligible for free two-day delivery.

Pharma & Health Insider spoke with Amazon Pharmacy Vice President and General Manager  Tanvi Patel about the Experity and other deals.

(The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Pharma & Health Insider: How closely are you working with Experity on the urgent care front?

Tanvi Patel: Very closely, because we're still so early in learning and iterating in this journey. Amazon Pharmacy is not at a stage where we just have off-the-shelf services that are “take it or leave it.”

For example, providers can see whether or not Amazon Pharmacy has something available, when it will be delivered and how much will it cost. Providers want the Amazon Pharmacy experience up there when they get to the conversation about pharmacy selection.

P&HI: How does this work in practice for the patient?

Patel: Let’s say you're seeing an urgent care physician because you have pinkeye. The provider gets to that point where they say, “I'm going to write this antibiotic prescription for you. What pharmacy would you like me to send it to?”

At that moment, the provider screen will show that Amazon Pharmacy has it in stock, it can be delivered to this patient today before 5 or 7 pm, and it's going to cost them $4.

The patient is then asked, “What pharmacy would you like me to send it to?” The patient can say, “I want to send to Amazon Pharmacy” or “send it to my local pharmacy that I go to all the time.”

If they choose Amazon Pharmacy, the provider prescribes it to us within seconds, that patient gets a notification on their phone that says “we've received your prescription, we're working on it. We'll let you know when it's ready for checkout.” If there's no prior authorization required, it'll say “Your prescription is ready. Click here to check out.”

And they're taken to the Amazon Pharmacy checkout page where they review all the information. They hit checkout, which is a very familiar Amazon experience with the yellow button. Then they can track that order all the way to their doorstep like any other Amazon package.

P&HI: To be clear, the doctor doesn’t suggest Amazon Pharmacy or even bring it up as a possibility?

Patel: No.Doctors are not allowed to do that. We're simply surfacing information in the workflow that could potentially help inform that provider to make the right clinical decision for their patient.

However, if they believe that clinically, this patient should choose Amazon Pharmacy because it looks like it's going be delivered to them that day [and time is of the essence], that is 100% the decision of a provider to do or not.

P&HI: Does it work the same way at One Medical?

Patel:Right.We've integrated the transparency technology that has allowed us to learn what providers want to see. If you said to your doc, “I want Amazon Pharmacy,” they would select Amazon Pharmacy and they could say, “Amazon's got it available, looks like it could be at your doorstep tonight, and it's going to cost you $4. Let's send it through.”

P&HI: One Medical has tabletop displays in waiting rooms promoting the use of Amazon Pharmacy. Will you be doing something like that at the urgent care centers?

Patel: Not at this time. Because One Medical is an Amazon entity, that seems a little bit safer. Urgent care centers are third parties who can do what they want. Our integration is with Experity, and Experity has the urgent care clients.

P&HI:Are there restrictions on what drugs are covered?

Patel:  We cover close to 96% of scripts written in the United States.  What we don't carry is schedule 2s like opioids and Adderall.

P&HI: Besides urgent care centers and One Medical, have you had other agreements with doctors' offices?

Patel:  We've done several integrations like this, such as recently with Weight Watchers Clinic. With urgent care centers, primary care centers, telemedicine, where patients are seeking out convenience, it makes a lot of sense that they'd want the convenience on the pharmacy/medication side as well.

P&HI:You recently announced an agreement with Emblem Health. Have you worked with other insurers before that?

Patel:  Yes. Blue Shield of California was the first big plan. At the beginning of this year, Amazon Pharmacy became their mail order partner, meaning their 5 million to 6 million members now use Amazon Pharmacy for mail order benefits. Similarly, Emblem has moved away from a vertically integrated PBM (pharmacy benefits manager) and to an independent PBM, where Amazon Pharmacy will become the mail order pharmacy benefit for their 3 million to 4 million members.

We're seeing more and more large plan sponsors and payers coming to us saying, “Tell me more about how this works, about how I can do this for my plan members.”

P&HI: Can we get an update on the One Medical kiosks? Are they still scheduled to debut next month in Los Angeles?

Patel: They went into offices the day we did the announcement [Oct. 8 ]. We had to place them in there so that we know that they fit and look right.

Right now you can touch the screen, you can interact with them, and you can get a little Amazon Pharmacy squeeze toy. We're not dispensing any medications yet. We will in the next couple of weeks.

We're on track to roll out a handful and pilot those kiosks at One Medical sites to start, and then we'll roll them out across other sites. Every site has a custom formulary based on what we know is prescribed at each office to serve the patient's needs.