People who receive Medicare can now use RxPass, Amazon Pharmacy’s subscription service that offers Prime members access to generic medications for an extra $5 per month, Amazon announced Tuesday.
While RxPass has been up and running for more than a year and it’s available in most US states, people who receive Medicare couldn’t use the service prior to today. People on Medicaid still can’t use RxPass.
RxPass is just one of Amazon’s ventures into health care and services intended to save people money on what are often high costs for drugs. Others Amazon health efforts include an automatic coupon feature that applies discounts directly when purchasing certain medications, including insulin, and a discount for Prime members on One Medical, a telemedicine service.
If you’re interested in RxPass as an option to potentially save money on prescription medications, here’s what to know.
What is RxPass?
RxPass is a $5 per month subscription service for unlimited access to medications that you have prescriptions for. Drugs available through RxPass include more than 50 medications that treat a variety of health conditions, including high blood pressure, dementia, hair loss, menopause, mental health, skin conditions and more.
If you sign up for RxPass, you’ll pay an additional $5 monthly for the service on top of your Prime membership cost ($15 per month). Then you’ll have unlimited access to available medications at no additional cost with free shipping.
Am I eligible for RxPass?
Before you start the sign-up process for Amazon’s RxPass, it’s good to know what the requirements are to join:
- You must have an existing drug prescription. RxPass does not help you get a prescription, so you must already have one from a doctor to transfer over to Amazon.
- You must have an Amazon Prime membership. Before you can sign up for RxPass, you need to have Prime membership. Currently, a Prime membership costs $15 a month or $139 a year. If you’re a student, you can get Prime for $7 a month or $69 a year.
- You must not be receiving benefits from Medicaid. Though people on Medicare can now use the service, people with state-funded insurance including Medicaid and CHIP can’t use the service currently.
- You must live in an eligible state. For now, RxPass cannot ship medications to California, Minnesota, Texas or Washington. However, you can still purchase medications through Amazon Pharmacy in those states.
What medications does RxPass offer?
In order to know whether RxPass is right for you, check whether they currently offer your medication. You can also see a list of health conditions that may be treated with RxPass prescriptions.
You can get over 50 medications for free with your RxPass subscription, all generic versions of their brand-name counterparts, including:
If you can’t tell whether a medication is included in RxPass, look for Included with RxPass tag in the Amazon listing.
How to sign up for RxPass
If you meet all the requirements, go to the Amazon Pharmacy for RxPass page (using the Amazon website or application) on your computer, phone or tablet. From there, you’ll see prompts to sign up for Amazon Prime if you don’t already have an account. If you’re signed into Prime and go to the Amazon Pharmacy for RxPass page, you may see a button that says “Get started with RxPass.”
The RxPass sign-up process requires you to answer a few eligibility questions and enter information like your name and address, a PIN for your account and a payment method for the monthly subscription fee.
Once you finish, hit the Confirm RxPass subscription button to sign up.
How to add your medications to RxPass
Now that you’ve signed up for RxPass, you can begin creating your health profile. You’ll be asked which medications and vitamins you’re currently taking, whether you have allergies and about your existing health conditions. You can also search for doctors who’ve prescribed you medicine and add them to your profile.
From there, you can start adding medication and prescriptions to your account. You can transfer prescriptions to Amazon either by sharing instructions with your provider (Amazon offers electronic prescription information for you to copy) or by transferring from another pharmacy.
You can add medication by searching for it on Amazon Pharmacy and looking out for the Included with RxPass tag. Enter the name of the medication and choose form, strength, frequency and supply.
Amazon will need to confirm that all prescriptions are valid, so you may need to wait a bit before you can order anything.
How to cancel your RxPass subscription
You can easily cancel your RxPass subscription via Amazon, and you’ll still be able to use it for the entire month you paid for. Once the month ends, you won’t get charged again. However, be warned that if you buy a 60-day supply of a medication with RxPass, your subscription cannot be canceled until your 60-day supply is finished. If you plan on just testing out RxPass, start with a shorter supply so that you can cancel sooner than later.
Also, canceling your Prime subscription will automatically cancel your RxPass.
For more, check out 14 must-know perks of Amazon Prime you’re probably not using and the best shows to watch on Prime Video.
