Amazon has made their big play into the healthcare space by purchasing Pillpack. Pillpack is an online pharmacy retailer operating in nearly all 50 states. 

So what is the play? Pillpack generates about 100 million dollars in revenue. But here is the rub. As soon as Amazon announced this acquisition, it shaved 13 billion dollars off of the pharmacy industry! CVS, Walgreens, and other pharmacies saw their stocks drop 10 percent or more. 

That's why it's a billion-dollar play. This is going to mean people have access to medications easier than ever before, with potentially the next day, same day, or even within the one-hour delivery. It is going to make the availability of these prescriptions much more convenient. That's Amazon's model- ease of use and getting products to consumers as quickly as possible. That ease of use is going to make things challenging in the conservative healthcare space. Now more than ever the public needs to understand that quite often; surgery, medications, and or injections are not the answer to their problem. For a majority of individuals  (as we've seen with the pill and the opioid crisis) the use of medications and drugs provide short-term gains with significant long-term repercussions. 

So Amazon has made their billion dollar play into the healthcare space, and it is all about the pharmacy for them. So it is all essential for us to stay diligent to get our message out there and to make sure we are communicating pro-actively with our patients in our community because their ease of getting medications just got a lot a lot easier.