Happy Thanksgiving 2020
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Cartoon – Remember This
Amazon takes another big step into healthcare
https://mailchi.mp/4422fbf9de8c/the-weekly-gist-november-20-2020?e=d1e747d2d8
In a move first telegraphed by its billion-dollar acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack in 2018, Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, putting the online giant in head-to-head competition with retail pharmacies CVS and Walgreens, and its big-box nemesis Walmart.
The new service will give customers access to home delivery of prescription medications, in addition to free delivery and a new drug discount card for members of Amazon Prime. Customers can have their physicians send prescriptions directly to Amazon Pharmacy and use their insurance to pay for the drugs, or they can choose to pay Amazon’s cash prices, which in many cases will be less expensive than insurance-based prices.
Rather than fully disrupt the traditional pharmacy business model, Amazon has partnered with pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Evernorth (a subsidiary of Cigna) for drug discounts, and with AmerisourceBergen as a drug supplier. Nevertheless, the new offering will surely shake up the mail-order pharmacy segment, which has been declining in recent years as brick-and-mortar retailers have expanded their in-person clinic offerings, often tied to in-store pharmacies.
Given changes in consumer shopping patterns caused by COVID, Amazon may have chosen a propitious moment to try to move its customers—especially its loyal Prime members—to a mail-order model that offers the “frictionless” convenience of the broader Amazon service approach.
Also behind the timing of Amazon’s pharmacy launch may have been the recent success of drug discounter GoodRx, which recently went public with a massive valuation based on the profitability of its business, and has been engaged in an aggressive marketing push.
Amazon’s announcement of a competing discount card for Amazon Prime members, with up to 80 percent off the price of generic drugs and 40 percent off for branded medications, poses a significant threat to GoodRx. Amazon’s installed base of more than 125M Prime users dwarfs the nearly 5M customers who use GoodRx, and over time its scale should attract partnerships with other PBMs beyond Cigna’s, allowing it to offer the same or better savings to Prime members.
Users of Amazon’s new benefit card will be able to purchase drugs through Amazon Pharmacy, as well as at over 50,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacies including CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, and Rite Aid, without using their insurance. While this week’s launch is not as immediately disruptive to incumbents as some had feared, it will surely allow Amazon to broaden its foothold in healthcare, and to explore new avenues to leverage its massive online presence as it moves further into the $3.6T healthcare industry. Expect (much) more to come.
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Hartford HealthCare nurses begin strike
Registered nurses at Hartford HealthCare’s Backus Hospital in Norwich, Conn., are launching a two-day strike Oct. 13 over alleged unfair labor practices, according to the union that represents them.
Backus Federation of Nurses, AFT Local 5149, which represents approximately 415 registered nurses at Backus Hospital and its partner medical facilities, and the hospital have been negotiating since June to resolve contract issues around patient care, workplace safety, and recruitment and retention, according to the union.
AFT Local says members want a fair contract that protects workers and patients, provides better access to personal protective equipment and allows the hospital to retain skilled registered nurses. However, the union contends the hospital has failed to bargain for a fair contract.
“We’d rather be at the bedside caring for our patients and hope a mutual resolution can be reached; but we cannot allow unfair labor practices to stand,” union President Sherri Dayton, RN, said in a statement shared earlier this month with Becker’s Hospital Review. “That’s why we marched on Hartford HealthCare’s executives to announce that we’re on strike if a settlement is not reached by Oct. 13.”
Nurses authorized a strike in September over these issues and issued a strike notice on Oct. 9.
Backus Hospital President Donna Handley, BSN, RN, said in a statement that the hospital has tried to avoid a strike and, over 23 bargaining sessions and using federal mediators, has continually addressed issues such as personal protective equipment, staffing and additional accommodations for breastfeeding.
The hospital’s offer includes wage increases for registered nurses amounting to 12.5 percent over three years, additional paid time off for 82 percent of registered nurses, and a 2 percent reduction to the cost of healthcare premiums.
Ms. Handley said the hospital has also offered to retain daily overtime for registered nurses and provided staff with additional paid time off during the pandemic and other support.
“In all of these and other ways, Backus Hospital has shown that we respect our nurses, we are prepared to find common ground, and we want to reach agreement on a fair contract,” she said. “The union, unfortunately, is prepared to strike, causing an unprecedented degree of disruption during an unprecedented health crisis.”
She said Backus Hospital will remain open during the strike and programs and services will remain accessible to community members.
