Competition Between CVS and Amazon ' s PillPack Extends in New Directions

I have gotten very interested in the competition between CVS and Amazon's PillPack for the retail drug market. CVS had more than 9,600 retail establishments in 2016 (see:CVS Pharmacy). It's original business model was the traditional one of"corner drug stores" where prescriptions were dropped off and drugs picked up. The PillPack fulfillment model is virtual -- prescriptions are submitted via a web site and the drugs are delivered back to one's door, often byAmazon Logistics. In response to this business model, CVS began to provide individualized dose packaging and home delivery withRx Delivery. CVS also began to slow-walk prescription customer transfer requests to PillPack (see:Resistance to PillPack's Requests for Prescription Transfers from Retail Drug Stores).PBMs are a key element in this retail drug competition because they partly control the retail price of drugs and also have a record of consumers' meds. CVS owns one such major health plan,Caremark. Amazon-PillPack is now seeking to establish its own PBM (see:Amazon-PillPack Pushes Against CVS with Prescription Deliveries; Also Seeking PBM Status). The one missing element in this tit-for-tat discussion is an affiliation with a health plan which, of course, pays for drugs. Recent news is that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) has developed an app that coordinates a consumer's drug history with PillPack (see:BCBSMA ’s new app coordinates meds with Amazon’s...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Insurance Medical Consumerism Public Health Quality of Care Source Type: blogs