Striving to compete with America’s biggest pharmacy chains, Amazon is launching a $5-a-month prescription plan in which Amazon Prime members get as many drugs as they need from a roster of 50 generic medications.
The medications in question are used to treat more than 80 chronic medical conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, anxiety, acid reflux, diabetes and even male pattern baldness.
In addition to costing only $5 a month, the medications are delivered to your home for free, Amazon says.
This new prescription benefit, called RxPass, is Amazon’s latest effort to expand its reach in health care. In the pharmacy industry in particular, Amazon is trying to lure pharmacy customers away from its main competitors — CVS, Walgreens and Walmart.
If you’re already an Amazon Prime member (which costs $139 a year) and you get your meds somewhere else, it might be worth checking to see how much money you might save by switching to this $5-a-month drug delivery service.
Here’s Amazon’s list of 50 common generic medications available from RxPass, from Allopurinol (for gout) to Venlafaxine (an antidepressant).
To sign up, go to the Amazon Pharmacy website.
Patients don’t use health insurance with RxPass, so you don’t need to worry about deductibles or copays. You’ll be charged a flat $5 monthly fee on top of your monthly Prime membership dues.
However, patients who are enrolled in government health care programs like Medicare or Medicaid aren’t able to sign up for RxPass.
How Amazon Pharmacy Works
The launch
