In a sign of the gig-economy’s growing presence in healthcare, Uber said it has launched a prescription delivery service in Seattle and Dallas. The company partnered with Nimble, a Redwood City, Calif.-based startup that pairs pharmacies with couriers for same- or next-day delivery.
Uber already had launched a non-emergency medical transportation business two years ago. For prescription deliveries, it has been using the same Uber Health platform, which Uber says allows it to meet HIPAA requirements while partnering with other entities in healthcare.
So far, Uber and NimbleRx said they have delivered more than 15,000 prescriptions through the partnership. They plan to expand to other locations in the future.
Nimble CEO Talha Sattar said the partnership with Uber Health would allow the company to increase its capacity. Currently, the startup says it can offer next-day delivery within 70% of the U.S. To date, Nimble has raised $60 million in funding, with backers including Sequoia Capital and Four Rivers Group.
Nimble isn’t the only company tapping drivers to deliver medications. In April, Costco began using grocery delivery company Instacart to deliver patients’ medications. A number of other startups are also offering delivery, including New York-based Medly Pharmacy, which recently raised $100 million, and Zipdrug, which was recently acquired by Anthem and integrated into its new PBM, IngenioRx.
At the same time, rideshare businesses are battling with courts in California as more states, including New York and Illnois, consider gig-economy legislation. A bill passed last year in California would force many of these companies to reclassify independent contractors as regular employees. Uber and Lyft had threatened to suspend their ride-sharing businesses in California if they were required to reclassify their drivers as employees, but a California appeals court extended the amount of time they have to comply with the court order.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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