Walgreens Rx Cost Advisor

Walgreens Rx Cost Advisor is a program that helps patients find a lower-cost alternative to their current medication. This project was part of Walgreen's broader effort to be more transparent about medication costs. The patient will receive a text message informing them of the program, and within the flow, they are shown more affordable medications that are similar to their current drug. If the patient requests to switch, a request is sent to their doctor, and their doctor will choose the best option for them. The doctor's response is sent to the pharmacy, and the prescription status is managed within a pharmacy portal created for this program.

I was responsible for designing the patient experience and the pharmacy portal. I worked closely with the team from start to finish—including concept development,  design execution, design revisions based on customer research, and close collaboration with engineers as they build the product.

Year

2019

Responsibilities

  • Design Direction
  • UX Research
  • UX/UI Design
  • Illustration 

Additional team members

  • UX Copywriter
  • Service Designer
  • Product Manager
  • Engineering 

What are we solving?

Discovery & Research

We conducted visioning sessions with stakeholders and pharmacists to determine business requirements and expectations from pharmacists. We also interviewed patients to gather their insights.

Patient insights

  • Medication cost is a big pain point.
  • They feel that Walgreens’ prices are too high.
  • Oftentimes, patients will not fill theirprescription if the cost is too high.
  • Patients respond most to SMS. It’s by far theirpreferred channel of communication. 

Pharmacist insights

  • Patients will ask pharmacists about cheapermedications if they are dissatisfied with thecost of their current medications.
  •  If patients are dissatisfied with the cost,pharmacists will recommend the patient talks to their doctor or the pharmacist willproactively call the doctor to ask about a moreaffordable medication options. 

Journey Map

Final designs

Outcomes

(last updated Q4 2020)

First released in test markets

We first released in Texas, Illinois, and Florida. 62% of patients who received the SMS requested to switch. 

Not widely released yet

At the end of 2020, they were working to add Rx Cost Advisor to the main Walgreens Rx hub. It had enough traction that theywanted it to be apart of the main product along with the SMS-onlyexperience. 

Although it's not widely released yet, it madea big impact on Walgreen's product strategy. 

Rx Cost Advisor was the first product from Walgreens thataddressed business goals around Rx pricing transparency. It showed Walgreens leadership that it is good to lean intoinnovation and build new product offerings from the ground up 


Using Format