6 ms·
Nurx (YC W16) Will Deliver Prescription Medication to Your Door for Free
- jrcii 11y agoImmorality and premarital sex are ripe for disruption!
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoInclude in that, alcohol. Is there a website for that yet?
- yarou 11y agoSure, it's already an app and it's called Saucey.
- dllthomas 11y agoA lot of married people use birth control.
- noonespecial 11y agoYou're a little late. I think the disruption you're thinking of happened in the 1960's.
- jrcii 11y agoMaybe in San Fransisco. For billions of people around the world it did not.
- donpinkus 11y agoMeh, it's more just disrupting premarital pregnancy prevention. Premarital sex has been huge since the invention of marriage, really hard to disrupt something that established. Denial is a pretty good app for it, try downloading that? And yea this is a solid disruption to immorality, you're right! Now a person can get the medical care they need, even when local doctors would want to deny it based on their own religious beliefs.
- dang 11y agoGiven what http://blog.ycombinator.com/nurx-yc-w16-prescribes-and-delivers-medications-on-demand-to-your-door http://blog.ycombinator.com/nurx-yc-w16-prescribes-and-deliv... says, and the madness this thread is going to descend into otherwise, I think we can justify a s/Birth Control/Medication/ on the title.
- ksenzee 11y agoInteresting. Looks like a combination of PillPack/ScriptDash plus a doctor on staff to handle the prescriptions. The most annoying part of getting birth control is jumping through the hoop of getting a doctor to prescribe it, so this is definitely valuable. I hope it catches on and manages to expand.
- jakegarelick 11y agoApplied there last year - didn't know they were going through YC. Good luck to them!
- rjzzleep 11y agoWhat's the value proposition for investors here? The data they gather from associating the medication to patients?
- nostrademons 11y agoPresumably the company will want to make a profit by billing the health insurance company (or customer, if they don't have one), and the investors will want a slice of those profits. Their FAQ says they're HIPAA-compliant, and data collected about a patient's health is extremely confidential.
- PanosJee 11y agoI am an investor in the company. Yes this correct, there will be a cut from the health insurance company. Gradually the company will add more RXs with higher margins.
- Johnie 11y agoMy guess is telemedicine insurance coverage arbitrage. Insurance companies reimburse doctors for consulting and prescribing the medication to the patients. For low risk/low effort consultation, like birth control, the doctor can go through more patients via telemedicine than having them come into the office with similar reimbursement rate as traditional visit.
- BadCookie 11y agoRightly or wrongly, I always felt like getting a Pap smear was part of the "deal" when it came to getting a birth control prescription. So it is surprising to me that Nurx can/will (I assume) give you a prescription without having a recent exam.
- jakegarelick 11y agoYep. States are moving toward an easier process of receiving birth control. Related: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/23/health/states-lead-effort-to-let-pharmacists-prescribe-birth-control.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/23/health/states-lead-effort-...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- chaostheory 11y agoIt's too bad that this doesn't seem to be viable in the 3rd world (yet). It's needed there far more than here. (Not that this service isn't useful here.)
- quantum_nerd 11y agoplease stop referring to it as the 3rd World.This classification is outdated(colonialism ended centuries ago), insulting and condescending(trust me no one wants to be reminded every day how poor and miserable they are, even if it was true). Here are a few alternatives for you: * Developing World ( still patronizing, but a better alternative) * Majority World ( yea, actually the US and Western Europe are just a small fraction of the global population) * Middle-Income Economies * Southern Hemisphere(I see you, Australia!) * etc. Please, anything but the 3rd World...
- schoen 11y agoThis classification seems to date to the Cold War rather than to early European colonialism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World (You could still view it as obsolete following the end of the Cold War... just more recently obsolete.)
- dsl 11y agoThe classification is not outdated, and did not originate with colonialism. Being in the "third world" simply means your country elected to not join NATO or the Warsaw Pact, and as a result did not receive the economic stimulus of the Cold War buildup.
- craigds 11y ago> If you're a woman living in the United States, you already know that getting your hands on birth control can be a complex and expensive process. I'm not a woman nor in the US, so this was news to me. It's really easy and cheap here in NZ, so it surprised me that this is still a problem in any developed nations. Can anyone add more background on what the difficulties are in the US?
- Amorymeltzer 11y agoUp until recently, it wasn't guaranteed to be covered under your health insurance. The ACA — "Obamacare" — required plans to cover many options, but it's not guaranteed that your preferred option(s) will available. Generally, coverage is supposed to be free, but again, only certain options may be free (generics only, for example) and some may require a significant copay (IUDs, I believe). For the birth control pill, you still A. need a prescription (which usually means you need to occasionally make an appointment, take off work, and see a doctor, probably not for free), and B. need that prescription to be filled. Oftentimes, that means picking up a new package of pills in a five-day window during semi-limited business hours because many pharmacies avoid giving out an extra supply. Planning for a vacation can be a pain (1-month notice) but an emergency trip is almost undoable. Not every pharmacy even needs to carry the birth control pill or other options, so it's a very real scenario that people may not have access to their preferred method. Recent court challenges (Hobby Lobby in particular) have made it more complicated and allowed some companies to NOT provide such coverage. Also, pharmacies have not been above charging women for products that should be free. Lots more detailed info here: http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-birth-control/ http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-birth-control/ IANAW but I am married to one.
- bdrool 11y agoOn the other hand, you can walk into a Walgreens and get "Plan B" over the counter (without a prescription). Some parts of the US don't do as good a job at stocking it, but in a place like the Bay Area, it's a piece of cake.
- 11y ago
- JoblessWonder 11y agoThis app is going to run up against the thorny issue of telemedicine legislation if they ever want to expand from California. California is a pretty easy state to start out in, but a lot of states have some pretty... interesting... views on telemedicine.
- kylemccarthy 11y agoWe (Nurx) have already expanded to New York and will be expanding to many more states in the coming weeks.
- JoblessWonder 11y agoThanks for the comment. It seems like a great product but I'd imagine you will have to re-tool it for states that have stricter telemedicine laws, correct? For example, the ones that require a video conference or things along those lines. Those were the states I was referring to.
- WestOfRome 11y agoLooks like delivery free and $15 for the meds So, exactly the same as existing services like https://lemonaidhealth.com/ https://lemonaidhealth.com/?
- Edvard 11y agoHey @WestOfRome we prescribe AND deliver. One stop shop for birth control and Truvada for PrEP. Our friends at lemonaid get you a 3month prescription for a cash. We get you a 13month prescription for free.
- sumeetsheokand 11y agoHey @Edvard, Truvada needs a prescription. Are you licensed to receive a prescription from the doctor?
- Edvard 11y agoDoctors prescribe both Truvada and Birth control on our platform :) There is no automated system dispensing drugs. A licensed physician reviews each request.
- sumeetsheokand 11y agoThanks for the response. So, you guys are creating a 3-way market with Customer, Doctor and Pharmacy (Invisible to the user)? Sounds like a huge play.
- eru 11y agoWhy do you do @handle when replying here? Don't we have threads for that?
- yarou 11y agoThe proliferation of female contraceptives is something we can all get behind (no pun intended). Joking aside, I think this paves the way for legitimate, regulated drug delivery; which itself may create a more favorable environment for the legalization of recreational drugs.
- sna1l 11y agoDoesn't it seem like these specialized delivery services will kind of get trampled when self driving cars become commonplace? I feel like there will be 1-2 big delivery companies (Google + whoever else figures out self driving cars) and then companies like Postmates, Doordash, etc will go out of business. Or maybe Google will provide them with the infrastructure to actually have profitable business. The doctor on staff providing prescriptions definitely increases the barrier to entry, but I don't think it is something that will hold up in the long run. Disclaimer: I'm not a woman, so my perspective could be (read: probably is) complete bullshit
- temuze 11y agoYou're describing the process of actually delivering - that's currently UPS/FedEx, etc. They will certainly struggle with Amazon in the near future (and maybe Google). Shipping will always be owned by the big guys because it's a tough, expensive problem. But ecommerce? That will always be open to smaller players because the start-up cost is low (you develop a way to sell it and give it to a shipping service).
- BillAtHRST 11y agoSo will my pharmacist, and my insurance company