Meeting the needs of healthcare and pharmacy customers in the 21st century will involve amplifying technology capabilities, both to augment the role of pharmacists and to deliver an optimal experience to patients, two industry experts said during Asembia’s AXS24 Summit, in Las Vegas.
Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth, is a case in point. Even before the pandemic, executives at Amazon saw that patients wanted more convenient solutions regarding access and care, said Laura Jensen, MBA, the company’s head of manufacturer and provider business development. “The pandemic very much forced us to think quickly how we were going to bring those services forward and how we were going to do them really well and very fast,” Ms. Jensen said. “That really hasn’t left us.” For example, she said, people now expect that telehealth is one option for interacting with healthcare providers for low-acuity issues.
Other technologies with the potential to improve the patient experience are also emerging. Amazon is developing artificial intelligence models to streamline administrative work and free up its pharmacists for more patient care–related tasks. As an example, if a patient comes in with a paper prescription, AI could upload the information into computerized records. “If we can use AI, we have the ability to automate that process … to reduce errors and create efficiencies,” allowing pharmacists to review rather than manually type each entry, Ms. Jensen said. “We can move what would potentially take hours down to seconds.”
Last year Amazon acquired One Medical, a membership-based primary care practice with about 200 locations nationwide, that allows members to schedule in-person or telehealth appointments through its mobile application for care at home and while traveling. It also operates Amazon One Medical Pay-per-visit, a virtual care service.
Regarding pharmacy care, patients can choose to see a local provider and go to their local pharmacy, or use Amazon Pharmacy to have prescription medications delivered to their homes, Ms. Jensen said. The app informs patients of their copays up front.
The company is building infrastructure to support same-day medication deliveries by establishing large distribution facilities in Los Angeles; New York; Phoenix; Miami; Seattle; Indianapolis; and Austin, Texas, Ms. Jensen continued. Customers outside those cities who are Amazon Prime members can get medication orders fulfilled within two days. Additional smaller facilities in cities such as Orlando, Fla., stock 2,000 of the most commonly prescribed acute medications and can provide same-day delivery to people in the area. The company is also using drones for same-day medication delivery in College Station, Texas.
The Patient and Payor Perspectives
Such offerings showcase the importance of customer focus in today’s market, said Jeff Berkowitz, the CEO, chairman and board director of Real Endpoints, a market access consulting firm. When developing drugs, the biopharma industry has historically focused on meeting requirements for safety and regulatory approval, he said. As a result, there has been significant emphasis on the disease state and launching a product that is first or best in class “without as much thought to the patient experience or the perspectives of other healthcare stakeholders such as payors.”
That payor perspective matters even more in 2024 than a few years ago given “the incredible amount” of vertical and horizontal consolidation in healthcare, which has resulted in insurance companies owning pharmacy benefit managers and having relationships with retail pharmacies, Mr. Berkowitz said.
“Pharma’s response for all of these years has been to go after more rare and orphan diseases that they believe are immune from price pressure and won’t be pushed down by these vertically integrated buyers,” he said. A better approach, he noted, would be for the industry to “solve problems throughout the integrated healthcare system [by working] together with payors and physicians.”
Telehealth is still a huge opportunity for pharmacy, Mr. Berkowitz added. Even without a retail space, pharmacists can send medications through the mail and counsel patients online. But the role of telehealth in a total care package is in flux, he said, noting announcements from Walmart and Optum this spring when the former announced it was closing its brick-and-mortar clinics and both companies revealed they were shutting down their virtual care businesses.
Another issue is ensuring equal access for everyone, Mr. Berkowitz noted. “We’re still not necessarily reaching the populations that can most benefit from telehealth because socioeconomically they just can’t get the same technology that’s required.”
The speakers reported no relevant financial disclosures beyond their stated employment.
This article is from the October 2024 print issue.