How to use PillPack Amazon pharmacy service

My PillPack arrived in a simple white box marked filled with packets of prescriptions and information on when to take them.Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

For most Americans, picking up a prescription involves a stop by the local pharmacy every month or so. 

And while shoppers can go online for everything from clothing to groceries, that isn’t the case yet for prescription drugs. 

That’s starting to change. In June, Amazon announced its plans to acquire PillPack, a small startup that mails prescriptions to people who take multiple medications for a reported $1 billion. The news sent a whole host of pharmaceutical and drug-wholesaler stocks tumbling at the time. 

So we decided to take a firsthand look at PillPack’s prescription service to get a sense of how it works, and to better understand how it could fit into Amazon’s future healthcare ambitions. 

That accessibility is key when thinking about PillPack’s main demographic. PillPack’s approach of combining multiple prescriptions into individually labeled packs puts it in a good spot to handle prescriptions for elderly populations who tend to have more prescriptions. PillPack works with Part D and Medicare Advantage plans to provide prescriptions to members.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Source: Business Insider, Georgetown