America’s two largest retailers want to deliver prescriptions to your doorstep in as little as a few hours.
Amazon and Walmart are undergoing national expansions in same-day prescription deliveries. They’re joining a trend that has gained momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic, with drugstore chains and companies like Instacart and DoorDash rushing to deliver prescriptions as soon as possible.
Fast prescription delivery options are growing as traditional drugstores close and more people use telemedicine or subscription-based care that encourages regular deliveries.
But this trend may run into limits in the complicated U.S. health care system, where drug costs and coverage can outweigh convenience for consumers, some of whom still like visiting a store.
“It takes a lot to change people’s behavior when it comes to their health care,” said Arielle Trzcinski, a principal analyst with the consulting firm Forrester.
Independent drugstores have done same-day deliveries for years, especially for patients who are homebound or recovering from surgeries, said Brigid Groves, a vice president with the American Pharmacists Association.
CVS Health started same-day deliveries in 2017 and has since expanded its reach. The chain delivered more than 4 million prescriptions through that service in 2023.
Walgreens also does this nationally and offers a service at hundreds of locations that will deliver within two hours.
Instacart got into prescription deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic when it started a partnership with Costco. The grocery delivery company has since launched same-day delivery partnerships with Wegmans and Publix.
Amazon expects to offer same-day prescription deliveries to nearly half of its U.S. customers by the end of this year. It’s adding 20 small pharmacies to distribution centers around the country to improve delivery speeds.
Separately, the company also has opened 10 prescription processing centers in the past few years. It can do same-day deliveries from those as well.
“We’re building a modern pharmacy, what we like to think of as a pharmacy in your pocket,” Amazon executive Hannah McClellan said at a company presentation last fall.
The Amazon Pharmacy vice president added that this included rapid deliveries and around-the-clock access to pharmacists.
Walmart launched same-day deliveries last fall in six states and expanded earlier this year to every state except North Dakota, where it has no pharmacies. The company allows customers to get their medicines along with groceries or other store items.
It offers several levels of service, including some deliveries in a half hour.
Customer demand drove Walmart’s expansion, said Kevin Host, a pharmacy senior vice president. He said prescription deliveries were the top thing customers requested when surveyed by the company.
Host noted that most people pick a pharmacy based on how close it is to their home or whether it has a drive-through window.
“This is just elevating that level of convenience,” he said.
Same-day deliveries can help people get started quicker on antibiotics or COVID-19 treatments when they are sick and see a doctor via telemedicine.
McClellan also said that customers who get their prescriptions quickly are more likely to take them. She said Amazon was doubling down on same-day deliveries this year and has “big plans to continue to build and scale those capabilities in the years to come.”
Patients may like convenience, but they like saving money even more.
Same-day deliveries can come with additional fees. People who consider them will want to know whether they are getting a better deal on their medicines, Trczinski said. She noted that this is especially true with so-called maintenance prescriptions that are refilled repeatedly.
People with insurance who are taking those maintenance drugs may already have them delivered, noted Andrew Mulcahy, a senior health economist with the nonprofit research organization RAND Corp.
“The practical implications of these kinds of programs will be very muted,” he said.
Customers also will have to trust that their regular prescriptions get delivered on time and are covered by their health insurer, especially if they switch pharmacies for deliveries. Some pharmacy benefit managers limit coverage outside certain pharmacies.
Drugstore pharmacists also have started providing more care and working with customers to manage conditions like high blood pressure. These things give people more reasons to visit a store.
Plus, some people just prefer going to drugstores. Don Watson says he might consider prescription deliveries “maybe 10 years from now when I’m not able to do it myself.”
The 72-year-old Indianapolis resident said as he left a Walgreens store recently that he has no problem picking up prescriptions.
“Sometimes the wait can be a little long … that’s my only gripe,” he said.
Haleluya Hadero contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - Media and local officials tour a new Amazon pharmacy, adjacent to a fulfillment center, in Corona, Calif. on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (Terry Pierson/The Orange County Register via AP, File)
FILE - A pharmacy manager works in the new Amazon pharmacy, adjacent to a fulfillment center, in Corona, Calif. on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (Terry Pierson/The Orange County Register via AP, File)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
