Amazon Has Recently Launched an Online Pharmacy. The Question on People’s Minds Is, “Will Amazon Pharmacy Be Revolutionary in Healthcare?”
Hello this is dr eric bricker and thank you for watching a healthcare z today’s topic is amazon pharmacy versus goodrx so as many of you know it was recently announced that amazon now has a full-blown pharmacy where you can now get prescription medications through amazon.com and many people have said media various news sources how revolutionary this is and i was
Like okay well if it’s revolutionary like probably the thing that is most needed in healthcare to be revolutionary is the price right healthcare is so expensive because everything is priced so incredibly high so i’m like okay well let’s look at the prices so i went through a list of medications and i compared the amazon prices just cash price if you didn’t have
Any insurance versus good rx i mean i’m not going to go through the good rx how they get to those prices that’s another video for another day i use the good rx app at kroger that’s the grocery store where i go that’s the pharmacy that i use so these are all the good rx prices at kroger now first up lyson approach it’s generic blood pressure medication probably one
Of the most common generic blood pressure medications amazon’s cheaper it’s three dollars and eighty cents for a one month supply whereas with good rx it’s five dollars and 88 cents okay next up metformin probably the most common generic diabetes pill dollars and fifty cents on amazon seven dollars 35 cents on good rx next up levothyroxine one of the most common
Medications again for people with hypothyroidism which is incredibly common especially in middle-aged and older women three dollars and eighty cents on amazon eleven dollars and seventy seven cents on good or extra kroger okay so it’s a lot less expensive there um on amazon okay now let’s go to the really high price brand name medications now that we’ve talked
About some generics okay let’s go to the most uh highest revenue medication in america if you’re an employer or broker benefit consultant watching this then of course the very first drug that you want to search up when you look on amazon is humira because it is the specialty pharmacy injection medication that is costing you and your employees and your plans gods
And gobs of money okay for a one month supply of humira which is two shots because you take it once every two weeks it’s five thousand six hundred and sixty nine dollars and on good rx at kroger it’s five thousand six hundred and seventy seven dollars okay so amazon is cheaper by eight dollars okay so this is not some revolutionary price difference where amazon
Through its buying power or whatever is able to get some sort of dramatically lower cost on humira it’s eight dollars a month different okay next up eliquis which is one of these new blood-thinning medications instead of coumadin or warfarin incredibly expensive it is 480 and 50 cents a month on amazon it’s 495.38 okay so it’s 15 a month less on amazon okay
Like that’s that’s a decent amount of money 15 bucks a month but that’s not like huge that’s not like earth shattering okay next up genuvia which is probably the most common brand name diabetes pill that’s taken 483.50 a month on amazon and then 491.37 on goodrx okay so you’re talking like eight dollars less a month for the genevia okay so what can you gather
From this for both very common generic medications and for the brand name generics amazon is cheaper so i thought to myself okay is this true for everything and the answer is no amazon is not cheaper for all medications let’s go through some examples levitaracetan which is the generic name for kepra probably the most common epilepsy and seizure medication is
41.30 per month on amazon it’s only 12.18 on goodrx okay so in other words amazon is three times more expensive it is a month more expensive than good rx at kroger next up dude laxatine which is used for depression and pain and treats both at the same time chronic pain okay 40.70 on amazon 12.73 on goodrx again amazon is three times more expensive for duloc’s
Team it’s an extra 28 a month on amazon fluoxetine which is generic prozac the the oldest longest running antidepressant ssri 18 and 20 cents a month on amazon nine dollars and ninety eight cents on good rx quarter x is like almost half the cost except estelopram which is generic lexapro again one of the most common generic ssris used for depression on amazon
14 and 60 cents on gutter x 9.44 cents okay alprazolam what’s that that’s the generic form of xanax right i’m not listen xanax is kind of controversial medication for treating anxiety a lot of people take it i won’t even get into the clinical indication versus not clinical indication of it but the point is is that amazon is 14.90 for a month’s supply of xanax
And good rx is only nine dollars and 82 cents so you can so that begs the question what’s going on here the laboratory aceton the generic keppra and all these medications they’re all psychotropic medications they’re all medications for your brain and all of these are for mood disorders they’re all for depression so is it just the coincidence that all the mental
Beds all the depression meds just happen to be more expensive on amazon that seems like an odd i mean what are they what does amazon appear to be doing here it appears as though they’re doing the sort of the classic loss leader medications over here and then they’re trying to hit you with these higher margin um you know generic psychiatric meds over here right
So just like walking into costco they make your paper towels super cheap and hope you buy a flat screen tv for a whole bunch of money okay so okay so that’s like a known retail strategy this is really revolutionary about that if you look at amazon pharmacy you cannot say that they’re cheaper for everything because they’re not and then for some reason they seem to
Have chosen mental meds and psych meds for what they’re making most expensive and i just wanted to bring that to your attention today and thank you for watching a healthcare z
Transcribed from video
Amazon Pharmacy vs GoodRx Prescription Pricing: Which is Cheaper? By AHealthcareZ – Healthcare Finance Videos
