Amazon pharmacy is probably one of the best interactions I’ve had with Amazon and pharmacies in general. We moved everything we could to it. The support has been great. Get things quickly all the information is right up front.
I have a migraine medicine (Qulipta) and have gone through half a dozen pharmacies in the last two years. The fact that I have both insurance and a manufacturers coupon seems to screw them all up, and several just stopped doing migraine meds. I am not functional without this medicine. I would literally qualify as disabled since I have migraines so often. Even two days of not having the med throws me off for a full week.
Without insurance or the coupon it's $1600/month. With insurance it's $650/month. With the coupon and insurance it's $0/month.
Amazon is the only pharmacy that didn't mess up the insurance. They also autoship on time every month. I'm not even joking when I say that I actually cried over how difficult it was with other pharmacies.
> one of the best interactions I’ve had with Amazon and pharmacies in general
Clearly they were spending too much money on it. The idea is for there to be no interaction other than a payment/delivery cycle. If there are plural positive interactions the overall system was poor (needed multiple interactions) and staffing too expensive ("best" rather than mediocre).
Agree. I also use PillPack for my recurring meds, also an Amazon company. The standard for medical company interactions is a very low bar, but both companies kill it every time.
Guys, I'm starting to think there's no amount of capital that can bring the necessary efficiency/low prices to the American healthcare system while also maintaining a profit motive.
No amount of capital can cut through the corruption and regulatory morass that has been built up over decades between the biopharma and government revolving door. That needs to get cleaned up before anyone has any chance of solving this.
Top five pharma companies had earnings of $82B in 2022. I'm sure some of that is bolstered by vaccine sales but the problem lies in uncapped prices and uncapped greed.
And who owns the most shares of these Companies? Organizations like BlackRock and Vanguard.
People are saying One Medical isn't great but it's by far the best experience I've had with health care. Good comms, easy to get visits, walk-ins for bloodwork etc etc. It's just super convenient. I'm in NYC and maybe it's different elsewhere but it's totally worth the subscription for me.
Don’t use OneMedical anymore but surprised people think Amazon is making it worse. The writing was on the wall well before the acquisition that you fill an office with a ratio of something like 1 doctor to 10 PA. Most visits can be covered by a PA.
For those looking for chronic care and a stable doctor, I highly recommend going the route of a direct care physician. As a family of two adults and one child we pay something like $180 a month to go see a doctor anytime with no copay or visit costs. For better or worse I see this as a better outcome in the US. Pay for a DPC doctor and then a high deductible plan for emergency.
A struggle I have seen play out numerous times, and at one point my own company fell victim to it, is that there are these obvious operational inefficiences in healthcare that every tech entrpenuer thinks they can hop onto as an easy oppourtunity. Then they run face first into the wall of a highly regulated industry in which, in most states, corporate power over care is severely restricted. Secondly, the last 5% matters just as much as the first 95%. You have to get to 100% because you are dealing with real people not "transactions".
It took us 10 years to really get the hang of how to create positive operational change in big healthcare systems and it's very nuanced and slow. In a nutshell it's a lot of carrot and stick or maybe a lot of micro-carrot and micro-stick.
Amazon tried the brute force approach with Haven and it failed spectacularly. The pharmacy and one-medical plays were a dip your toes in the water approach but from what I have seen they are replaying most of the same mistakes.
We considered trying OneMedical, which opened an office close to where we live. But when I looked into it, it seemed like you have to buy a subscription up-front, with no other way to try it out. We might have made the switch by now if they had made it easier to try.
> We considered trying OneMedical, which opened an office close to where we live. But when I looked into it, it seemed like you have to buy a subscription up-front, with no other way to try it out. We might have made the switch by now if they had made it easier to try.
In many (most?) states, they are actually legally required to offer services to you without a subscription, but you won't be able to use the app. In other words, you have to call them like a normal doctor's office and book an appointment, and when you do, they will have to provide you the same medical care and services that they would for any other patient.
This is not specific to One Medical; it's due to laws that prohibit additional fees for medical services. In a similar vein: in many states you can use the Costco pharmacy even without a Costco membership, although you can't buy anything else while you're there.
That said, you're not really missing out. One Medical's entire shtick is that they have a slick UX and "appointments start on time" (in theory). In practice, their medical care is... let's say variable, at best. You're paying for a slick UI and convenience slapped on top of a care delivery system that's no better than what you might get elsewhere.
I was on a gig interviewing a doctor co-op. It was similar in that it was an upfront subscription plus co-pays per visit. They had a staff of MDs, more nurse practioners, and a staff of nurses. They also had a couple of psychiatrists on staff as well. The upfront subscription was still lower than an actual insurance plan. The only downside for me that I could see in the idea was it was not available in my city.
Hopefully, this is a precursor to them getting out of this space entirely. My fear is that they'll use their economic power to dominate this space and make it impossible for me to avoid using them in one way or another.
OneMedical customer since well before the acquisition -- the enshittification continues.
Competitor services costing muliples of what OneMedical does keeps me in place for now; that, and getting an appointment and the experience of that appointment at a "normal" doctor's office is still the same as it's always been: scheduling is a massive PITA, and you're lucky if they aren't running at least 30 minutes behind by lunchtime.
Have you personally noticed any downgrade in your experience yet? Each year I waffle back-and-forth about whether the OneMedical membership fee is worth it, but only because I'm pretty healthy and don't get to use it much. Whenever I do, it works great: book an in-person doctor's appointment same-day/next-day in 10 minutes, get seen within 5 minutes of walking in, no need to fill out an in-take form with my complete medical history for the umpteenth time, and prescriptions and follow-up all handled seamlessly on the website.
The Amazon acquisition seemed like the best outcome we could hope for. Experience says it's unrealistic for OneMedical to remain independent forever, and Amazon has much better customer service than almost any other big company with a broad customer base. Insofar as the OneMedical experience was stellar mostly because it was being subsidized with ~$1B in VC/PE money (which is plausible to me), belt tightening was inevitable.
Have you tried https://goforward.com/ ? It's not especially cheap and they don't accept insurance, but you can do everything in the app, there is no waiting time, and the medical professionals seem passionate and competent.
Have you looked for an independent Direct Primary Care doc? I use one in Wisconsin in addition to my usual PCP for routine stuff, vaccinations, lab tests, etc, and it saves me 90%+ off what I would pay with my PCP. My PCP is just essentially my catastrophic backstop now.
[+] [-] Nk26|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tedivm|2 years ago|reply
Without insurance or the coupon it's $1600/month. With insurance it's $650/month. With the coupon and insurance it's $0/month.
Amazon is the only pharmacy that didn't mess up the insurance. They also autoship on time every month. I'm not even joking when I say that I actually cried over how difficult it was with other pharmacies.
[+] [-] adolph|2 years ago|reply
Clearly they were spending too much money on it. The idea is for there to be no interaction other than a payment/delivery cycle. If there are plural positive interactions the overall system was poor (needed multiple interactions) and staffing too expensive ("best" rather than mediocre).
[+] [-] Domenic_S|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toomuchtodo|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gumby|2 years ago|reply
I appreciate the incompetence by which they are doing it as it they encourages the good people to leave.
[+] [-] lenerdenator|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gorwell|2 years ago|reply
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/assets/png/CH107294927.PNG
[+] [-] TaylorAlexander|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _bkyr|2 years ago|reply
And who owns the most shares of these Companies? Organizations like BlackRock and Vanguard.
[+] [-] weeksie|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] infecto|2 years ago|reply
For those looking for chronic care and a stable doctor, I highly recommend going the route of a direct care physician. As a family of two adults and one child we pay something like $180 a month to go see a doctor anytime with no copay or visit costs. For better or worse I see this as a better outcome in the US. Pay for a DPC doctor and then a high deductible plan for emergency.
[+] [-] duffpkg|2 years ago|reply
It took us 10 years to really get the hang of how to create positive operational change in big healthcare systems and it's very nuanced and slow. In a nutshell it's a lot of carrot and stick or maybe a lot of micro-carrot and micro-stick.
Amazon tried the brute force approach with Haven and it failed spectacularly. The pharmacy and one-medical plays were a dip your toes in the water approach but from what I have seen they are replaying most of the same mistakes.
[+] [-] htrp|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnicholas|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chimeracoder|2 years ago|reply
In many (most?) states, they are actually legally required to offer services to you without a subscription, but you won't be able to use the app. In other words, you have to call them like a normal doctor's office and book an appointment, and when you do, they will have to provide you the same medical care and services that they would for any other patient.
This is not specific to One Medical; it's due to laws that prohibit additional fees for medical services. In a similar vein: in many states you can use the Costco pharmacy even without a Costco membership, although you can't buy anything else while you're there.
That said, you're not really missing out. One Medical's entire shtick is that they have a slick UX and "appointments start on time" (in theory). In practice, their medical care is... let's say variable, at best. You're paying for a slick UI and convenience slapped on top of a care delivery system that's no better than what you might get elsewhere.
[+] [-] dylan604|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sonicanatidae|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imbusy111|2 years ago|reply
I got the same type of appointment for something around $20 directly from Cigna. And that's with a high deductible account.
[+] [-] platzhirsch|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnFen|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gorwell|2 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39280477
[+] [-] 98codes|2 years ago|reply
Competitor services costing muliples of what OneMedical does keeps me in place for now; that, and getting an appointment and the experience of that appointment at a "normal" doctor's office is still the same as it's always been: scheduling is a massive PITA, and you're lucky if they aren't running at least 30 minutes behind by lunchtime.
[+] [-] jessriedel|2 years ago|reply
The Amazon acquisition seemed like the best outcome we could hope for. Experience says it's unrealistic for OneMedical to remain independent forever, and Amazon has much better customer service than almost any other big company with a broad customer base. Insofar as the OneMedical experience was stellar mostly because it was being subsidized with ~$1B in VC/PE money (which is plausible to me), belt tightening was inevitable.
[+] [-] jlund-molfese|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chkaloon|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] varelse|2 years ago|reply
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