Walgreens expanding its delivery program

Walgreens will roll out next-day prescription delivery nationwide in effort to compete with Amazon’s rising power in the medical industry.

In a partnership with FedEx, local Walgreens customers can now opt to have their prescription delivered to straight to their doors for a $4.99 fee. Same-day delivery is also available in some markets and will expand throughout 2019, according to a company release.

When customers receive a text that their order is ready, they can now follow a process from their smartphones to enroll in the delivery service.

Amazon’s growing presence in the medical industry has sparked responses from others like Walgreens.

The online giant announced an acquisition in June of PillPack, a startup that mails prescriptions to people who take multiple medications.

Amazon also recently launched Amazon Comprehend Medical, which uses machine learning to extract data from patient records to help healthcare providers make recommendations.

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