Nworah Ayogu, Amazon Pharmacy’s chief medical officer, said in an interview at a health technology conference this week that the company is giving a prescription medicine savings card to Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance clients in five states.
The program has so far included collaborations with Blue Plans in New Jersey, Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, and Kansas.
The collaboration allows plan subscribers to receive discounts through a MedsYourWay card when they purchase pharmaceuticals from Amazon Pharmacy — and the cost of those drugs still counts toward their insurance deductibles. People who have prescription discount cards typically have to choose between buying a drug out-of-pocket with the discount but without having the cost applied to their deductible or buying a drug through their insurance but without the discount. This program avoids that decision.
« They can be free to choose whatever is cheapest without worrying about what pertains to their out-of-pocket limit or the deductible since both apply, » Ayogu said at the conference.
MedsYourWay is provided by Prime Therapeutics, a pharmacy benefit manager owned by a number of Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurers. In the fall of 2021, Prime Therapeutics began offering home delivery to some consumers via Amazon Pharmacy.
The MedsYourWay card can only be used at Amazon Pharmacy. The majority of prescription savings cards are accepted at a network of pharmacies.
Amazon Pharmacy will be introduced in 2020, two years after the company acquired PillPack, a drug delivery startup. The company’s presence in healthcare is growing: it has a now-national telehealth program called Amazon Care, a fitness band, and has integrated Alexa into hospital settings.
