I used Amazon's new RxPass to get my prescriptions for just $5. It took forever and I probably won't use it again.
Yeji Jesse Lee
- Amazon Pharmacy just launched a prescription service for generic medicines.
- I tried it out and paid a $5 monthly fee to receive generic medicines.
Amazon just launched a new prescription subscription.
For a $5 flat fee, Amazon Prime members can get access to generic medications for 80 common health conditions, like allergies, anxiety, and diabetes.
The subscription, called RxPass, is an extension of Amazon Pharmacy, which allows shoppers to get their prescription drugs delivered straight to their door — just like their toilet paper or dog food.
But instead of paying for each medication separately, the pass offers customers a way to lower their healthcare costs by grouping all their generic medicines together with a low monthly fee. It's Amazon's latest healthcare experiment, after the tech giant launched a virtual clinic in November and struck a deal to buy One Medical in July.
I decided to see how the RxPass works first hand by ordering my generic medicine through the new service. While I don't take multiple generic medicines, I saw that ordering my single medicine through RxPass would still save me a few dollars each month.
RxPass is billed as a way to help patients save time and money but in the end, I spent over an hour on 7 different phone calls to my doctor's office and the pharmacy to get my medicine.
In a statement, Dr. Vin Gupta, chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, said: "We are always listening to patient feedback to improve our products and services, and we'll continue to do that with RxPass."
Here's what I did to get my medicine from Amazon Pharmacy's new RxPass.
I decided to try out Amazon Pharmacy’s new RxPass to see if I could shave a few dollars off my generic medicine each month.
First, I had to create an RxPass account and fill in some personal details.
RxPass is available in 42 states and doesn't work for patients with government insurance like Medicare and Medicaid.
A spokesperson for Amazon Pharmacy told Insider that Amazon Pharmacy accepts most insurance plans, including government sponsored programs, but that many government programs prohibit pharmacies from charging directly for medications that would be covered by their insurance.
I also verified my phone number and set up a 4-digit code so that my medical information would be private — even from others who shared my Amazon Prime account. I liked that Amazon set up this safeguard because it gave me a sense of privacy.
Then I added my credit card to pay for the service.
Because I set up my account near the end of the month, Amazon charged me just 84 cents for January and then the total fee of $5 at the beginning of February.
After answering some questions about my current medications, health history, and allergies, it was time to choose the medicines I wanted.
According to Amazon, RxPass offers generic drugs that target 80 common health conditions, which seems impressive. You can find the medicines you want based on the name of the medicine or the condition you're looking to treat.
I had an allergy prescription and was happy to find that two different medicines I had prescriptions for were included through RxPass.
Shoutout to all my allergy girlies.
I clicked through and landed at a page that gave me four different options for the drug that I could choose from. I chose the first option, but failed to realize that it didn't have the tiny label marking it as "Included with RxPass."
That’s when my troubles began. I transferred my prescription from CVS Pharmacy over to Amazon Pharmacy by filling in my prescriber information and my old pharmacy address.
Amazon told me it received my transfer request and said that it would let me know when my medicine was ready to be checked out.
The process took a long time.
Amazon Pharmacy's Gupta told Insider in an emailed statement that to ensure safety, prescriptions can only be held by one pharmacy at a time. Moving a prescription can sometimes create delays, for instance in cases where the doctor or transfering pharmacy is slow to provide the needed information.
Five days after I requested my prescription transfer, I got an email saying that my medicine was ready. That was relatively easy, I thought! Unfortunately, no.
When I tried to check out for free using RxPass, I saw that I was being asked to pay $13.40.
After a lot of searching, I realized that the medicine I picked was missing the tiny label that read "Included with RxPass," even though the medicine name was included on RxPass' list of available medicines.
Amazon Pharmacy's Gupta said that currently search results provide a list of all available options for a specific medication and that the full list includes "detailed information about each medication as well as upfront pricing that allows customers to make the best decision based on their individual health needs."
I clicked through the other links and saw the same thing — if you try to find a medicine through RxPass' list of available drugs, the site will link you to the wider Amazon Pharmacy site, where you have to wade through a list of options to find one that is included with the RxPass.
Amazon: please make that label bigger.
Back to square one. Luckily I had a different medicine that was definitely included with RxPass.
I checked. A lot.
So I did the whole thing again — asked to transfer my prescription to Amazon Pharmacy then waited as my prescription went under a review.
After a week of waiting, this time I received an email saying that my prescription was no longer available.
I called Amazon Pharmacy's customer care number and the rep told me that my doctor had prescribed my medicine in a way that "didn't exist" in their system. After making a series of calls between my doctor's office and Amazon Pharmacy, it turned out that my doctor had prescribed the medicine in a slightly different way than how Amazon Pharmacy categorized the medicine in their system.
Pictured here: a log of the calls I made between my doctor's office and Amazon Pharmacy to figure out why my prescription wasn't going through.
I had to call my doctor to ask them to re-prescribe my medicine. They did, but that meant I'd have to start the process all over again.
Amazon Pharmacy's Gupta said there may be a few reasons why this happened. He said the doctor may have prescribed a formulation that Amazon doesn't carry or that isn't available, or prescribed an over-the-counter therapy.
Not wanting to wait another week, I called Amazon again the next day and asked if there was a way for me to get my medicines more quickly. The phone rep was able to mark my case as “important” and said that should expedite the process.
When I checked my account the following day, I saw I was finally able to check out my medicine for $0 under RxPass. I placed my order and the tracker showed that I should expect my package the next day.
Two and a half weeks after making my RxPass account, I finally got my package with my medicine (which, by the way, is also sold over the counter).
I plan to cancel my RxPass soon. I can see why people with expensive generic medicines taken over a long period of time might find the service useful, but I think I'll stick to taking a 10 minute walk to my pharmacy and picking up my drugs in person.
Unlimited generic prescriptions may sound like an awesome idea, but in reality this experience showed me it's really hard to build and pull off an entirely new system.
In total, I saved $10 compared to what I could have paid on Amazon Pharmacy without the pass.
While I hope I had a one-off bad experience, I definitely think there are kinks in the system that need to be addressed.
Popular Right Now
Popular Keywords
Advertisement