Relentless Health Value

Over the summer, Amazon purchased PillPack for $753 million. And I had to say I felt a little bit like I should get into the investment business. Back in 2015, I interviewed TJ Parker on the show, mainly because I was so taken by the way PillPack manages multiple prescription medications for customers by presorting, packaging, and delivering the drugs—all with a 24/7 pharmacy staff.

When I was considering PillPack, I realized something odd. It’s a fairly undisputed fact across every other industry in the universe that if you want to gain customer loyalty (read: adherence to your product or service), you need to make using your product or service a beautiful and convenient experience that is integrated into your daily life. Kind of behavioral economics 101. So it’s a little bit strange that this notion comes up so rarely when discussing adherence. We talk about patient engagement, empowerment, shared decision making—and all of these things are incredibly important. But it’s hard to be empowered when you have to meticulously count out pills for multiple meds twice a day or drag your kids to the pharmacy to pick up meds with uncoordinated refill schedules.

I thought PillPack had done a great job building a highly differentiated customer experience. You know, customer-centric just like Amazon.

So with that, here’s my interview with TJ Parker back when he was a newly minted founder of a start-up called PillPack.

Interested providers may reach out to TJ directly
at tj@pillpack.com, and patients and providers may both
go to pillpack.com for more information.

TJ is a designer at heart and a pharmacist by training. He started his career at his family’s long-term care pharmacy in 2004 and has worked at Target pharmacy, a local community pharmacy, and Massive Health (acquired by Jawbone). He holds a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. In 2015, Forbes named TJ to its 30 under 30 List in Healthcare. In 2018, PillPack was acquired by Amazon.

02:20 TJ talks about his origin story with PillPack.
04:16 TJ explains what PillPack is and how it works as a full-service pharmacy.
06:57 One of the biggest challenges is getting across to patients that there is a better option to approaching their health.
10:06 How the customer experience is different between PillPack and a retail pharmacy, and how PillPack is working toward eliminating the frustration that comes with a normal retail pharmacy.
11:13 PillPack’s average customer age is 49.
12:42 How PillPack addresses the issue of customer loyalty and the personalized experience that might be offered by retail pharmacies.
15:01 Providers and prescribers often spend somewhere around 30% of their time prescribing medication, when a more efficient solution can be to implement a start and end order.
20:16 The illogic behind using expirations on prescriptions to entice patients to remain accountable at doctor visits.
22:47 How PillPack steps in to be the medication coordinator for individuals.
26:32 The complicated issue of nonadherence and what this means.
27:57 How PillPack reminds the patient about being proactive about refilling prescriptions.
33:29 How patients pay to use PillPack. (Hint: It’s the same cost as going to a traditional pharmacy.)

Interested providers may reach out to TJ directly
at tj@pillpack.com, and patients and providers may both
go to pillpack.com for more information.