As many Americans know all too well, the traditional pharmacy experience is subject to inconveniences like long drives to stores, long lines in stores, and out-of-stock medications. Unimpressed by this way of doing things, Eric Kinariwala set out to create an alternative.
His solution, a digital pharmacy and courier delivery service named Capsule, is now serving users in more than 90 zip codes across the Denver metro area, a range that spans all the way from Boulder to Parker.
Capsule works by taking prescriptions from customers’ old pharmacies, or straight from doctors, filling the prescriptions in Capsule’s single brick and mortar location, and then scheduling a time and place for in-house couriers to deliver the medications to customers’ doorsteps. For the customer, the entire process is handled via Capsule’s mobile app or website and comes with the convenience of free, same-day delivery and transparent pricing so there are no surprises when the prescriptions actually arrive. The digital pharmacy also coordinates with insurance including medicare and medicaid, manages refills to make sure customers never miss a dose and works to find cost savings for medications.
Making it easier for people to access their prescriptions not only provides increased convenience, it helps address medical non-adherence, a growing problem in the U.S. One out of every two prescriptions in America goes unfilled, which leads to $300 billion in additional healthcare costs.
In Colorado, hundreds of thousands of people can’t access the care they need because of transportation challenges which is compounded by lack of pharmacy locations - Denver has just 1.38 pharmacies per 10,000 residents, well below the national average of 2.4. Capsule’s delivery service can help fix this problem for Coloradans and others across the U.S.
Capsule pharmacists are also available by text, chat, email, or phone to privately and discreetly field questions that customers would normally ask in person in too-public spaces of traditional pharmacies. Patients don’t need to worry that switching to a digital pharmacy would mean their medical concerns get routed through a gauntlet of pre-recorded phone menus; Capsule makes the explicit promise that customers will never talk to a voicemail autobot, part of the company’s vision for itself as a “smarter, simpler, kinder” pharmacy.
Heading into what many experts predict will be a challenging cold and flu season, along with continued spikes in COVID-19, contactless options for pharmacy deliveries, like Capsule, may appear more and more attractive to people who want to limit their in-person interactions. Factor in Capsule’s advantages over mail-order pharmacies such as faster delivery and ease of use for customers with unstable housing or transportation situations, and residents in the Denver metro area and beyond now have access to a winning pharmacy formula. Visit Capsule.com to learn more.