Can Technology Stop the Duane Reade-ization of New York?

You can have my Duane Reade when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

Seniors with Medicare in NY State can sign up for EPIC. It works with any NY pharmacy, subsidizing your out of pocket costs to $10 or $20. Unfortunately, "PillPack, a national pharmacy and subsidiary of Amazon" doesn't have a NY State location. Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) Program www.health.ny.gov/health_care/epic/

While I see the appeal of the local pharmacy whose helpful staff takes their time to answer questions, many of us do not have such a wonderful pharmacy nearby. If you need medication every month and don’t have time to wait around on line, find out your prescription isn’t ready, then rearrange your schedule to come back later, Capsule is an excellent alternative. It’s simple, efficient, and fast. Yes, it bothers me to see brick & mortar retail struggling (particularly independent stores), yet Capsule is one service that I wholeheartedly endorse. It’s a colossal time-saver.

If most New Yorkers are receiving Z-Paks for sinus infections they are being mistreated. Most sinus infections don't need antibiotics (I will cite this article next time the Times writes about overprescription of antibiotics) and when they do, azithromycin (why advertise the brand Z=Pak?) is not even a third line choice.

I enjoy going to my local Rite-Aid pharmacy. Everyone knows me and is very helpful.No long lines. Would miss it if were gone. In my opinion you can’t replace interaction with real people.

Kaiser Permanente, which is unfortunately not available in New York is the answer. The pharmacy is located in the same building that my doctor is and once the initial Rx is ordered and filled (in the same location as the MD) I can get refills, order either by telephone or on their exclusive website for NO delivery charge.

CVS on the Upper West Side already delivers medications for free. I don't understand the added value of Capsule.

I’m in favor of anything that stops the Duane Reade Plague.

Why not the following? 1) Manufacturer to wholesaler to trained community pharmacist to patient. eprescribe from primary care physician to community pharmacy with allergy / adverse reaction, problem list and medication list synergism to prevent drug - drug, drug - patient problem, drug overuse, drug underuse, drug - cost ineffectiveness, avoid prior authorizations, reward Pharmaceutical Chronic Care Management (CCM) done by physicians along with community pharmacists AND reward Telenurse - physician comprehensive Chronic Care Management synchronized with the pharmaceutical CCM to assess outcomes of CCM plans that involve pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions. 2) 340B Drug Prices for patients <200% of PLI for ALL eligible patients. 3) Direct from wholesaler to community pharmacy pricing without involvement of Pharmacy "benefit" Managers, insurance company reviewers, hospital system power players & government bureaucrats who are profiteering power hungry pilferers of the public purse, the privacy of the patient and the prerogatives of the patient - doctor relationship. 4) establish ongoing Comparative Effectiveness studies in primary care with primary care office specialists in Comparative Effectiveness Study Design and facilitation of Continuity of care PAID for my PHARMA. 5) ONE registry through which ALL clinical / administrative / billing / reimbursement data traverse for the purpose of cost-benefit analysis and resulting continuous quality improvement.

"“I think you’ll see,” Mr. Kinariwala said, “in every industry, people that don’t serve the consumer don’t deserve to exist."" Capsule always had a tech broey sheen to it. This article does little to dissuade that notion.

I gave up on CVS a few years ago because of the long lines every time I went. I've switched to a small, independent pharmacy. They know me when I walk in, no long lines, and I believe their prices are better than the chains. If you have one in your neighborhood, give them a try.

I’ve been a customer at CO Bigelow since I moved to the Village in ’78, and I’m still a client now that I live in Brooklyn. Clean, helpful, no lines, nice people, plus it’s an amazing store. An entirely different world from Duane Reade, where the business model is based on the pre-Glasnost Soviet Union. I once overheard a pharmacist there tell a patient that they didn’t have Xanax because it was illegal to stock it. In Greenwich Village.

This article seems to miss the purpose of Capsule. Despite their ubiquity in New York, pharmacies don't necessarily provide good customer service, or even convenience. Capsule's delivery service or app may not be ground-breaking, but their utilization of technology and customer service are. I can't count the number of times I've spent upwards of 30 minutes in line at Duane Reade only to find out that my medication is out of stock or that my prescription that I received an long-winded voice mail about actually requires a prior authorization. Somehow this always involves at least one phone call to the pharmacy, insurance provider, and prescribing physician. Throw in the fact that it's a Schedule II medication, and it typically takes a week to actually receive a refill. I may have come for the cheeky subway ads and millennial-friendly sans-serif text, but I've stayed for the ability to text with a pharmacist from the middle of a meeting and have my prior authorizations handled for me.

“...have been considered an aesthetic scourge...” ? “...has started to spread its own tentacles...” ? Why do I so often get the feeling that the Times is populated by chic leftists whose hobby is denigration of capitalism. If there’s a Duane Reed or CVS on every corner it’s because the folks living there want to buy what they’re selling. Too simple for trendy sophisticates?

I use CVS as they know me and my wife who has serious brain disease for 18 years and being a customer at our local store. I used to know their pharmacists quite well as my wife's disease needs changes in Med's several times during the month, I presently sort for her each week in tower like containers 275 pills arranged by the hour she needs them. Now however CVS seems to be rotating quite frequently their pharmacists from one store to another and that personal contact is getting lost . We therefore may lose the nice personal contact from a pharmacist that would know my wife ran out of an Rx and would give me a few of he maintenance pills in advance of calling her Neurologist for a renewal. As a too busy at home caregiver that courtesy was worth more then gold to me.