Need prescriptions fast? CVS has an answer

CVS Pharmacy is offering home delivery of prescriptions to tap the growing market of online convenience shopping.

The pharmacy giant announced the new service this week that will use traditional mail and is available at nearly all 9,800 CVS stores. Customers will pay a $4.99 service charge for orders of one- to two-day delivery.

In addition to prescriptions, customers can ask for health items like cold and flu remedies, pain relief and allergy medicine, and first aid supplies to be delivered.

A Florida pharmacy industry official said there are some pluses of the program but that a downside is the loss of one-on-one communication between the pharmacist and patients who pick up their medications.

Same-day delivery of prescriptions was tested last year in New York City and is expanding to Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Orders must be placed by 4 p.m. local time for delivery within a few hours during weekdays with a charge of $8.99, according to CVS.

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CVS officials would not disclose information about its national target market, but the expectation in Florida is that the large senior market dealing with issues of transportation, disability and drawbacks with public transportation is a likely market, among other demographics.

It also means customers need to be willing to use a CVS pharmacy application or call their pharmacy, the company said.

The pharmacy giant also processes millions of prescriptions each year as a pharmacy benefits manager for insurance plans and mail delivery with discounts to the insured with 90-day orders.

“Through a fully customized digital experience, shoppers are now able to enjoy the convenience of CVS Pharmacy right at their doorstep,” Kevin Hourican, president of the company, said in a news release. “The rollout of delivery from nearly all of our 9,800 retail pharmacy locations nationwide represents another step forward for us in delivering innovative omnichannel solutions that help people on their path to better health.”

CVS officials said there are no distance limitations for the one- to two-day delivery, yet the same-day service will be within 1 mile of the store location.

Couriers will be used for the same-day service, a CVS spokeswoman said.

The home delivery program is not adding new jobs to CVS because the prep work of filling the prescriptions and putting the orders together will be done by the local store and pharmacy staff.

Medicare Part B durable goods cannot be delivered, and there are some third-party plan exclusions; controlled substances are not eligible for delivery, and refrigerated prescriptions are excluded, according to a company spokeswoman.

Postal workers will pick up delivery items at each store and take them to the post office at the end of their route for delivery the next day or second day.

The pharmacy giant’s foray into prescription delivery is in response to Amazon's expected move into the pharmacy business for home delivery, according to the Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos.

It’s hard to say what the impact will be with CVS offering prescription delivery in Florida, but the senior market is a potential source, and so are millennials who are frequent online shoppers, said Michael Jackson, executive director of the Florida Pharmacy Association.

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The reaction among pharmacists is “there is some good and not so good” elements of the CVS delivery, he said.

The good is that it’s another option for consumers who are homebound for a variety of reasons, he said.

“The not so good is a disconnect between pharmacy providers and patients,” Jackson said, adding that pharmacists offer advice to patients and can fill in to answer questions when patients cannot get in to see a primary care doctor.

There’s also a concern with medications sitting in postal trucks and the heat in Florida, he said. And there is the issue of theft at the doorstep.

“It has been an ongoing issue with home delivery in general,” he said.

Pharmacists may see fewer patients in a store to pick up prescriptions, he said, but that won’t mean a reduced workload since the pharmacists will be doing the packaging for the home delivery.