Amazon Offers Subscription Scripts, Optum Rx to Roll Up Coupons for Members

January 26

UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx PBM is rolling out a new price shopping tool, while Amazon.com Inc.’s pharmacy division is offering a flat-rate monthly prescription service to Prime members. Experts tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that the new offerings are signs that disruptors like Amazon, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. and GoodRx Inc. are mounting an effective challenge to traditional generics coverage inside the pharmacy benefit.

Amazon’s new offering, RxPass, will allow members to pay a flat fee of $5 per month to fill any combination of 52 eligible generics, plus free delivery, per a Jan. 24 press release. RxPass will be available in 42 states.

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Radar on Drug Benefits

Peter Johnson

Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.