Expires 04/01/2021

Specialty Pharmacy

We're here to support you through COVID-19 with free home delivery.

Your partner in navigating the ins and outs of prescriptions — at no extra cost.

Alto Pharmacy Technician

Alto Pharmacist

Our mission at Alto is to fulfill medicine’s true purpose — to improve quality of life — for everyone who needs it.

Services that reduce travel and encourage social distancing are now more essential than ever, not only for vulnerable populations but all of us as members of our communities. Alto’s free same-day doorstep delivery ensures you have safe and reliable access to medications in this time of uncertainty. 

Hear first-hand from members of the Alto technology teams.

Alto / Blog

Alto's PPE donation pick-up drive adds more windows in San Francisco, launches donation pick-up windows in Seattle, Los Angeles and Orange County

Alto launched its inaugural PPE donation pick-up drive on Friday, March 27th. In just one week, our fleet of couriers has conducted more than 85 pick-ups of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical supplies. Thanks to the generosity of the greater San Francisco Bay Area community, more than 4,700 masks, 16,000 gloves and other supplies have been delivered to the medical staff working the front lines at facilities including San Ramon Regional Medical Center, St. Rose Hospital, Sutter Health Eden Medical Center ER, UCSF Mission Bay, Kaiser Oakland, and Washington Hospital. We are grateful for the partnership of the team at GetMePPE Bay Area for their guidance on ensuring the donations are addressing critical shortages throughout the community. The team at GetMePPE Bay Area has helped coordinate donations to all of the following area facilities:

Sutter Health,   Kaiser San Jose
Kaiser Redwood City,   San Ramon Regional Medical Center
St. Rose Hospital,   Palo Alto VA
Washington Hospital,   El Camino Hospital
UCSF,   Kaiser Regional - Diablo Marin Sonoma
Kaiser San Leandro,   Kaiser Oakland
Kaiser Richmond,   Kaiser Santa Clara
Kaiser Antioch,   Valley Medical Center Foundation
Kaiser Fremont,   Alameda Health System
Chinese Hospital,   Contra Costa County Health Services
Marin General Hospital,   Kaiser San Rafael
Stanford Medicine,   John Muir

Given the initial success of our Bay Area donation program, we are expanding this effort to our Los Angeles, Orange County and Seattle courier delivery zones. Health systems throughout these regions are experiencing a shortage of the PPE that healthcare workers need to stay safe while providing care for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 (coronavirus) patients. Donations will be retrieved by our Alto courier team and will go directly to the healthcare providers at hospitals throughout our communities. 

Unused disposable N95 respirators and surgical masks.*

Unopened containers of disinfectants and disinfectant wipes

*The packages can be opened, as long as the masks have not been used.

First, confirm that you are in our SF, Seattle, LA and OC courier zones here, and then complete this short form to request a donation pickup. 

Please print off this form and follow the instructions for placing the donation items in an enclosed bag. Label the bag "Alto Donation," include the form, and leave the donation bag in the designated safe place before the start of the scheduled pick-up window. An Alto courier will come to pick up the donations - no contact needed!

Wednesday, April 15 between 9 am and 1 pm

Requests must be made before 8pm on the evening before the window. Read more about the original donation drive and common FAQs here.

Connecting Crucial COVID-19 Supplies with Healthcare Workers

Set automated medication dose reminders and enroll in automatic refills for future deliveries

Today we’re releasing two updates to our mobile app experience to help you stay on track with your medications and never miss your next fill. These new features are a key part of Alto’s goals to provide more control and convenience in managing your medications.

Busy schedules mean it can be hard to remember when to take your medications. Alto’s new Reminders will alert you when it’s time for your next dose. Manage multiple medication schedules throughout the day, and track your progress with a quick tap in the app.

Head to the new Reminders feature in the app’s main menu.

Select the active prescription you’d like to set a reminder for.

Input the specifics of your medication’s schedule: days of the week, times of day, amounts.

The app will send you a push notification at the scheduled time. 

Once you've taken your medication, check off the dose in the app to track your progress.

Set it and forget it with Auto Refills. Turn on Auto Refills when scheduling your next delivery to get your future refills delivered automatically. We’ll reach out to remind you when the next fill is on it’s way so you can review any price changes and make updates to the delivery location or timing if needed.

You can opt into Auto Refills in two ways:

From your Medications list: Open an active prescription in your Medications list. You’ll be able to view medication details, your last copay and next available delivery date, as well as the new Auto Refill option. Turn it on for any medications that you’d like to have future fills delivered automatically.

From your cart: Turn on Auto Refills for any active prescriptions currently in your cart during checkout. Toggle the setting on for any prescriptions with refills remaining.

Auto Refill settings are also available on the Alto desktop app and mobile web experiences (visit app.alto.com). Auto Refills are only available for medications that have refills remaining on the prescription and are not available for controlled substances. Some insurance plans may also limit automatic refills. 

If you are out of refills, you can request a refill from your doctor directly or ask Alto to request one for you via the “Request For Refills” option in the app. 

Download the Alto mobile app from the App Store or Google Play store today.

New From Alto: Medication Reminders & Auto Refills

To the greater Alto community: today we’re reaching out with something a bit different.

Our area health systems are experiencing a shortage of the critical personal protective equipment (PPE) that healthcare workers need to stay safe while providing care for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 (coronavirus) patients.

Alto Pharmacy is launching a PPE donation pick-up program to support our healthcare colleagues across the Bay Area (see our courier zone for pickups here). Donations will be retrieved by our Alto courier team and will go directly to the healthcare providers at hospitals throughout our communities. 

First, confirm that you are in our SF Bay Area courier zone here, and then complete this short form to request a donation pickup. 

Print off this form and follow the instructions for placing the donation items in an enclosed bag. Label the bag "Alto Donation," include the form, and leave the donation bag in the designated safe place before the start of the scheduled pick-up window. An Alto courier will come to pick up the donations - no contact needed!

Requests must be made before 8pm on the evening before the window.

Q: Are you only accepting donations from people who already use Alto's services?

A: No, donations can be collected from anyone in our SF Bay Area courier service zone.

Q: Are you offering this donation pick-up service in your other communities?

A: We're starting with our SF Bay Area neighbors first to make sure we can ensure the donated supplies make it to healthcare professionals in need. If the program is successful, we hope to expand the program to our other communities. 

Q: Which organizations will receive the donations?

A: We're working with a number of healthcare organizations providing front line care in San Francisco, the East Bay and the South Bay.

Q: I have supplies that are already opened and/or used - can I donate them?

A: All supplies must be unopened, unused and in original packaging with the exception of disposable N95 respirators and surgical masks (those can be opened, but unused).

Q: How will you be ensuring the safety of your couriers and those who are donating?

A: Alto's courier team is using a no-contact pick-up process. Our couriers will also be wearing gloves and masks when they pick up the supplies. They will place the supplies into separate bags and dispose of the gloves used after each pick-up. 

Other questions? Please contact community@alto.com.

Help Bay Area Healthcare Workers Fight COVID-19

Alto’s local same-day courier delivery: now with later cutoffs and Saturday service.

Starting Monday, March 23, Alto is offering expanded service for our fertility patients residing in the greater San Diego area. Alto’s weekday cutoff for prescriptions is now 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday, and we’ve added a Saturday afternoon delivery window from 3 - 6 pm.

To ensure the safety and health of both our customers and our courier staff, we’ve implemented a no-contact delivery model during COVID-19. Our delivery model is both safer than a traditional retail pick-up experience and more convenient.

You can send prescriptions to Alto via eRx (search for Alto Pharmacy), over the phone at 1 (800) 874-5881 ext 1, or via fax at 1 (415) 484-7058.

Monday - Friday
Prescribing Cutoff: Rxs received by 3:30 pm PT and delivery scheduled with patient by 4 pm PT for same-day evening delivery
Delivery Window: 6 - 9 pm PT for North County, 7 - 10 pm for San Diego

Saturday
Prescribing Cutoff: Rxs received by 1 pm PT and delivery scheduled with patient by 1:30 pm PT for same-day afternoon delivery
Delivery Window: 3 - 6 pm PT

Customer support hours are Monday - Friday 9 am - 9 pm PT and Saturday - Sunday 10 am - 6 pm PT. Patients can reach out to Alto via phone, text, email or app.

Quite simply, courier delivery means more control. 

Our evening delivery windows allow patients to more easily plan to be at home to receive their packages. Patients schedule deliveries to the location of their choice - home, work, or hotel - and on the day of their choice. They can even track our couriers in real time on our mobile app!

Every package comes complete with clearly labeled ancillary supplies, a temperature tracker, and cold storage when needed. Our pharmacists and dedicated patient care team is available to answer questions, walk a patient through their first injection, and advise on proper medication handling.

Fertility is Complicated. Your Medications Don’t Have to Be.

Alto knows fertility pharmacy. With more than 17,000 patients served, we understand the treatment complexities and concerns of fertility patients. Alto will automatically connect you with all manufacturer-sponsored financial assistance programs for qualifying prescriptions. Alto also works with many fertility benefits programs, including ProgynyRx, and many leading financing and loan providers. If we cannot bill your insurance, we’ll find you a pharmacy that can.

At this time, Alto is only offering fertility medication services in the San Diego market. Any updates to service areas and offerings will be available at alto.com/locations.

Alto Pharmacy Expands Local Daily Delivery in San Diego

Small changes, big difference: designate a safe place to minimize contact with our couriers

Update from the Alto team, March 17th, 2020: 
As the spread of COVID-19 continues to impact daily routines in the communities we serve, Alto remains open and ready to deliver your medications safely to your door. Our pharmacy locations are fully stocked, our couriers are ready, and our pharmacists can assist with coordinating early refills and longer fills to ensure you have access to your medications throughout this period. Reach out to our care team at 1 (800) 874-5881 (call/text) or via secure message on our mobile app. Delivery is always free; we're here to help. 

Alto’s utmost goal is the safety and health of our customers and our staff. During this period of uncertainty and the continued risk of exposure to COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus), Alto is implementing a few minor changes to our free doorstep courier delivery service:

Designated safe places: Rather than physically handing deliveries to our customers, our couriers will knock on the customer’s door and ask to leave the package on the doorstep or in the designated safe place. You can update a safe place with our patient care staff over the phone, via text or in our mobile app under Account > Delivery Addresses > Edit > Delivery Instructions.

Delivery confirmation: For packages requiring a signature on receipt, the Alto courier will sign on your behalf after visually confirming you have received the package via your designated safe place.

These small changes help to minimize physical contact between our customers and couriers while still ensuring deliveries are made on time and on schedule. Thank you in advance for your patience as we implement these extra precautions to make continued use of Alto’s services safe and easy.

Questions? Our team is available 9 am - 9 pm PT Monday - Friday and 10 am - 6 pm PT on weekends; reach out via phone, text or the app.

To Your Health: Updates to Alto’s Free Same-Day Doorstep Delivery

People and healthcare providers deserve more from today's healthcare system. See how Alto is building a new kind of pharmacy aimed at improving the pharmacy experience for everyone. Learn more!

Building a Better Pharmacy | Alto Pharmacy

After three months of listening, learning, and living, I am excited to share a bit about what I learned on my journey to join Alto as Chief People Officer. The accomplishments of this team are already extraordinary -- and we’re about to embark on scaling to even greater heights. 

My journey to becoming an Altoid* started in November 2019 when I came onboard with the short-term scope of helping the team get traction on their 90-day goals, hire several leadership key positions, and develop the 2020 People Operating Plan and budget. The experience and the energy of how much we accomplished in a short period were surreal, and  I observed a People team truly committed to delivering an amazing experience to our 400+ Alto employees and contractors. It gave me a clear perspective of the direction I wanted to take my career.

I knew I would select my next opportunity based upon three criteria: the team, the product, and the impact the organization has on society. I appreciate that I have been blessed with opportunities to be a part of some of the world’s top workplaces and brands, including Accenture, Google and Dropbox, and finding my next role would take some awesome soul searching. 

People and healthcare providers deserve more from today’s healthcare system. At Alto, we're building a new kind of pharmacy to cure one of our healthcare system's most startling ills: over 50% of prescriptions are never picked up. Because staying on track with doctor's orders requires more than just delivering pills, we're managing everything from insurance logistics to pricing, late-night questions to supply chain, and anything else that could stand in the way of effective treatment.

Given the importance of this mission, it shouldn’t surprise you that the team at Alto is special. It is a group of pharmacists, fulfillment operators, patient care specialists and partnership managers that are experienced, committed to our mission, and go above and beyond every day for our patients and provider partners. The product suite includes an intuitive platform built in partnership with our patient care and frontline teams using empathy and rigor. 

The impact we’ve had and will continue to have is substantial: our patients fill their prescriptions 30 - 50% more often than with the national chains (“adherence” to those in health care). We’ve helped patients save more than $23M on their medications through automatics savings searches and other programs. And these numbers reflect the impact of just the six markets we’ve launched in (two of which launched just this past month). Imagine what we’ll see as we expand across the US. 

The leadership team is committed to expanding the culture in a meaningful way, and I’ve found the culture to be one built on curiosity and collaboration. Before I arrived, the leadership team aligned on a leadership framework based upon Conscious Leadership. Its’ 15 commitments are by no means new or innovative, but I can honestly say this team’s whole-hearted embrace of open and honest dialogue about where we are and are not fulfilling the commitments is refreshing. This commitment will help us become better both as individual leaders and as a company and serve to further differentiate us as a workplace committed to open and constructive conversation.

For those embarking on a similar journey to find your next opportunity, I share the following:

Take time to reflect -- identify what you love.

Recognize that no opportunity is likely to check all your boxes, even in this HOT HOT market.

Take every meeting. This meant I didn’t have much time off between gigs but I learned a lot.

Seek opportunities to really work with your future team. Not everyone or every company will be open to this kind of interim opportunity but ask for more than just interviews

Ask to attend a regular leadership meeting.

Ask to take a real problem the leadership team is facing and work through it in real life with a member of the leadership team.

We’ve aligned on the five key tenants for the People Team at Alto. They are our north star and will help guide us on this journey.

Our first priority on the People team will be our People: We will have lots of goals and metrics but will always ask: “Is this doing the right thing by our people? Are we improving the quality of the experience they’re having at Alto?” Our team will be available when you need us, and you’ll have an advocate and sounding board any time you need one.

Look across our people’s end-to-end journey to deliver amazing experiences: HR too often stays stuck in our silos of recruiting, employee relations, compensation, benefits or performance management. We will differentiate our workplace and teams by threading the needle through each of those traditional processes to identify the impactful parts of the journey. Our goal is to amplify the joyful moments and support Altoids through difficult ones.

Connect disparate, siloed systems (recruiting, core HR, payroll): To help create a cohesive overall experience for employees and foster collaboration, we will connect disparate siloed systems. We will improve adoption and engagement of these tools and help Altoids learn and grow using world-class technologies to deliver people services and optimize their experience. Finally, connected systems will mean comprehensive data to support visualizations and better decision making by leaders.

Grow smart with efficient processes and automation: We can do a lot of what we want to deliver awesome experiences by adding lots of people, but that wouldn’t be using Alto dollars efficiently. We want to grow smart and scale using lessons learned by the many, many companies who’ve come before us. We’ll measure the efficiency of our processes, operations, and engagement with Altoids and candidates using a myriad of solutions from technology, vendor-partnerships and lean practices across our journeys.

Evolve our culture to one filled with curiosity, collaboration, inclusivity, creativity and workplace with intentional design, actions, and reinforcing behaviors: Delivering a workplace that is more diverse, inclusive and equitable requires thoughtful frameworks starting with attracting talent, defining behaviors creating an inclusive environment where all communities and people feel they belong, and rewarding and growing people equitably based upon their results and how they achieve them.

My hope in sharing these reflections is that some will learn from my experience and therefore do one or two better in the search for their next opportunity.

The future of work is about us all learning and growing faster than we did before. If any of this interests you, reach out, connect or apply online to one of our positions now (or in the future). To learn more take a look at our brand video and then apply today!

Alto Rebrand Sizzle Video

*We affectionately refer to Alto employees as “Altoids.”

People and healthcare providers deserve more from today's healthcare system. See how Alto is building a new kind of pharmacy aimed at improving the pharmacy experience for everyone.

Update from the Alto team, March 17th, 2020: 
As the spread of COVID-19 continues to impact daily routines in the communities we serve, Alto remains open and ready to deliver your medications safely to your door. Our pharmacy locations are fully stocked, our couriers are ready, and our pharmacists can assist with coordinating early refills and longer fills to ensure you have access to your medications throughout this period. Reach out to our care team at 1 (800) 874-5881 (call/text) or via secure message on our mobile app. Delivery is always free; we're here to help.

Worried about coronavirus? 
Here’s what our pharmacists want you to know.

As the news continues to unfold about COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus) and its spread in our communities, you’re likely making preparations for you and your family’s medical needs.

Our pharmacists are here to help. Here are their recommendations for staying healthy, but we also recommend following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization and checking their sites regularly for updates.

COVID-19 spreads much like the common cold or flu. The virus that causes COVID-19 is passed from person to person through close personal contact (things like touching or shaking hands), coughing, sneezing, or touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth without washing your hands.

Though everyone is at risk for becoming infected, elderly patients and patients with diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease have been shown to be at higher risk for severe symptoms. This may change as we understand the disease more.

Symptoms range greatly and can begin to appear two to fourteen days after exposure. Fever and cough are the most common, although some individuals will have no symptoms and others may experience severe difficulty breathing and other respiratory issues. Given that this outbreak coincides with cold and flu season, it may be difficult to differentiate between the diseases.

Wash your hands! Often, vigorously, and with soap and water for at least 30 seconds. If soap and water aren’t available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands. 

Disinfect surfaces and commonly used objects regularly with bleach or chlorine.

Avoid close personal contact with people who are sick or who may have been exposed to the virus. Stay away from work, school or other high-traffic areas if you begin to exhibit symptoms like fever and cough.

Alto’s free home delivery service and automatic refills mean you don’t have to add worrying about your medication supply or going out in public to your list of precautionary measures. We’ll make sure you have the prescriptions you need on schedule. Stocking up on cold medicine or other over the counter medications? Our pharmacists can add those to your next delivery.

Our team is available 9 am - 9 pm PT Monday - Friday and 10 am - 6 pm PT on weekends; reach out via phone, text or the app.

If you think you’ve been exposed to COVID-19, contact your healthcare provider via phone or other digital means. Do not go to your healthcare provider’s office in person if you believe you may be exhibiting symptoms from exposure as public health officials will need to coordinate necessary precautions for staff and other patients.

From Your Pharmacy: What You Need to Know About Coronavirus

Stephanie Curry is famous at Alto. No, she’s not related to Steph Curry, she’ll say right upfront, but Stephanie is known at work for her joyful, carefree singing that echoes through our Alto Pharmacy headquarters in San Francisco. She brightens our day. And among Alto’s patients, Stephanie is beloved for her reliable, friendly service, delivering medications to their doorsteps — along with big, warm hugs.

Q: What do you do at Alto and how did you learn about Alto?

A: I drive for Alto and deliver medications to patients’ homes, six days a week. I’ve worked all my life from delivering newspapers when I was 11 to being a nursing assistant in home care centers and to driving for Uber. When I heard about Alto, that I could deliver medications to patients, I applied and got the job! I’ve been driving for Alto for almost two years and I love that it gives me space to do my thing and I get to see patients.

Q: Tell us about some of the patients that are most memorable to you?

A: There’s a patient I’ve been delivering medications to for months, and usually it’s a family member or caregiver who answers the door. I see the medical equipment so I figure the patient is ill or bed ridden. But then one day, I drive up to the house and I see this elderly woman, sitting on the porch. It’s the patient and she’s waiting for me! She told me that she hears my friendly voice every time I come and that she wanted to come out to meet me in person and tell me how much she appreciated me. She gave me a big hug and that’s how I started to get to know her.

Editor’s note: At Alto, we’ve heard from countless patients who have also been touched by Stephanie. Not only the patients, but often the patient’s caregivers, children and dogs look forward to Stephanie’s Alto deliveries.

Q: Do you know all your patients by name?

A: I work the East Bay regularly so I get to know the roads, the houses and the patients pretty well. Whenever I see a patient, I always greet them by name, like “Hello, Miss Maria”. No one taught me that — I just think it’s natural really, the only way to communicate with one another. People already have so much going on, having to take medications — they don’t want to feel like another number. So I want them to know that I know them. I love that this company is about dealing with people — it’s personal, you know who you can talk is a live person, you can see their face.

Q: And what makes you memorable to patients?

A: My hugs. A lot of patients ask me for hugs, and I don’t hesitate. Oh, and my car. Patients tell me that when they get a notification from Alto that their delivery is a few minutes away, they look out the window. They always know it’s me when I step out of my shiny, black Lincoln car. I know it’s not a typical car for a courier, but I love it. My husband bought it for me and he’s the love of my life. We were married 31 years and we have three beautiful children together. So I drive that car wherever I go.

Q: What do you do for fun, outside of Alto?

A: I love to play Bingo — I’m the Bingo Queen, I just came back from Vegas. I also love to cook. I used to run a restaurant in Sacramento and my family raves about my Gumbo. I just live, enjoy life, because as I tell my friends and family, you can’t take nothing with you when you leave!

Delivering Care to Patients: An Altoid Profile

Anna left her doctor’s office with a glimmer of hope. For months, Anna had been struggling with digestive issues and now her doctor had suggested they try a promising new medication. Finally, she thought, maybe this new medication could provide some relief and her life could return to normal. But when Anna arrived at her pharmacy, she was shocked to discover the medication would cost $400 per month! The pharmacist at the counter explained that if she couldn’t afford the copay, she would need to call her insurance or her doctor to “figure it out.” Frustrated and overwhelmed, Anna left the pharmacy empty-handed and with the distinct feeling that healthcare had been designed to work against her.

Unfortunately, Anna is not alone in encountering obstacles that prevent her from getting the medication she needs. From the moment we leave the doctor’s office, we are thrust into a maddening, depersonalized system that feels like a big black box. We are left to navigate it all on our own, especially when it comes to medication pricing. 1 in 3 Americans admit that they aren’t taking the medication they need because of cost. This is not only harmful to our long term health as patients, but also a devastating cost to our country. It is estimated that there are 125,000 avoidable deaths per year and nearly $300 billion in downstream medical costs due medication non-adherence. You may have heard stories of diabetic patients who, faced with climbing insulin costs, died from skipping doses or resorting to cheaper alternatives. For these patients and their families, getting the right medication is an issue of life or death. And for many like Anna, it’s, at the very least, very high stakes.

Today, medication pricing is set by multiple stakeholders in a process that is entirely hidden from patients and doctors:

Your employer contracts with a pharmacy benefits manager (or “PBM”, like Caremark, Express Scripts, etc.) whose job is to determine which medications should be covered or not under your insurance plan (even down to the exact dosage and brand that your doctor prescribes).

The PBM negotiates with the drug manufacturers to agree upon a specific price to charge the employer for a medication, the remaining copay for patients, and the PBM’s hefty cut for administering the service. It’s not hard to imagine how commercial incentives might color decisions on which medications are covered and how they are priced.

Drug manufacturers also offer copay assistance programs for select medications, with varying eligibility criteria, but these are marketed primarily through doctors, meaning patients often don’t know these assistance programs exist or if they qualify.

Today, none of this data is transparent or shared. These parties (doctors, drug manufacturers, PBMs) do not have the incentives nor the technology in place to coordinate with one another to act in the patient’s best interest. Drug manufacturers and pharmacies get paid by the medications dispensed, doctors get paid by the appointment/procedure, and PBMs get paid through taking a hefty cut of the negotiated medication price. These parties are naturally incentivized to pursue a path that delivers the highest financial return with the least amount of effort. Sitting in the center of this web, pharmacies are uniquely positioned to coordinate the best outcome for the patient. Traditional retail pharmacies, however, don’t have access to technology solutions that would easily bridge the gap between insurer, manufacturer and physician. It’s no wonder medication prices continue to climb and the process of getting medication remains so inefficient.

At Alto, we asked ourselves, “What if every patient could have a pharmacy expert on standby to help him/her navigate the complex world of medication pricing?”

We believe that pharmacy’s role is to make the process work around patients, rather than asking patients to learn how to work the system. So we built a modern pharmacy software platform that enables our Alto pharmacists, billing specialists and patient advocates to coordinate between doctors and insurance companies to ensure patients have clear choices and transparency on medication pricing.

Alto is the first pharmacy to proactively:

Show patients the price of a medication both with and without insurance, within minutes of receiving their prescription. These prices matter because sometimes the price without insurance is actually cheaper.

Match patients with savings and copay assistance programs offered through drug manufacturers. Often, patients and doctors don’t have time to manually keep track of these programs, so our service automatically searches for eligible programs.

Help patients and doctors navigate the complexities of insurance, whether by identifying an alternative medication that is more affordable under the patient’s plan or helping to petition insurance to cover the medication (a process called Prior Authorization). Compiling all the paperwork and medical history data required by these insurance processes takes up valuable time from doctors (estimated at 20 hours of work per week per doctor). Our technology automates this process so patients can quickly get access to the medications they need.

Here’s what all this means for a patient like Anna:

When Anna told her doctor about the expensive copay, her doctor sent the prescription to Alto. Anna’s doctor knew that Alto would help with the paperwork needed to petition insurance to cover a patient’s medication. Within a few hours, Anna received a notification from Alto that they’d worked with her doctor to start the process with her insurance. In the meantime, Alto had matched her with a program from the drug manufacturer that would reduce her copay so she could get started on her therapy right away. When her first Alto package was delivered that evening, Anna regained that early glimmer of hope, relieved to have the Alto team in her corner. Within days, Anna’s insurance approved the coverage, and Anna has been able to stay on the medication, better managing her symptoms (and her medication costs) for over a year now. Anna has been able to focus on her health and feel some semblance of her new “normal.”

Since Alto Pharmacy opened four years ago, we’ve had the privilege to help hundreds of thousands of patients and physicians. By harnessing the power of our pharmacy team and our technology, patients get access to the best medications, at the best possible prices, delivered to their home the same day. 

We are proud to be cracking open the black box surrounding medication pricing and giving Alto patients a new level of transparency and control in their health journey. And we are hopeful that with increased awareness and patient advocacy, systemic changes are on the way that will help make medications more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Monica Tran has led the Product and Design team at Alto for two years, helping build a suite of products for pharmacists, physicians and patients that allows Alto to break down barriers to medication access and transform the pharmacy experience. She recently transitioned into a leadership development and coaching role, helping to scale Alto’s organization, values and patient experience.

Breaking Open the Black Box of Medication Pricing

Choose when and how you are notified about prescriptions with our Prescriber Notifications feature.

Starting tomorrow, February 14th, AltoMD users have access to improved prescriber-based notification options in AltoMD. These new settings help users manage which patient prescriptions generate email notifications for pharmacy actions.

Control which patient prescriptions generate email alerts when there are pharmacy questions or actions;

Subscribe to updates by the patient or by the prescriber; and

Keep your email inbox clean and focused only on the patients you work with on a daily basis.

Occasionally, Alto will need additional information from a clinic to fill a patient’s prescriptions. For clinics using AltoMD, the Alto team can send brief messages via the portal rather than having to reach out via phone, voicemail or fax. These messages can be quickly responded to in between rooming patients or while handling other administration duties — no more waiting on hold or playing phone tag with the pharmacy!

Notifications allow AltoMD users to receive email alerts when there is a new message requiring the clinic’s attention. To help you limit which patient alerts you receive, AltoMD has offered the ability to subscribe to an individual patient (get alerted for all messages for that specific patient). Our new prescriber-based notifications allow an AltoMD user to subscribe to updates for all patients for a given prescriber (get alerted for all messages for all patients with scripts written by that prescriber).

AltoMD is designed to keep you off the phone, away from the fax machine, and focused on your patients. Our existing patient-based subscription functionality allowed users to get targeted notifications about patients, but required active management in the patient directory to keep up to date on all needed subscriptions. Opting into a prescriber’s notifications means it’s easier to get all updates on the patients you care about, with fewer steps.

Prescriber Notifications: Select which prescribers at your practice you would like to follow; by following or subscribing to a prescriber, the user will receive email alerts when there are pending pharmacy actions requiring attention.

Revamped Settings page: Your user profile and notifications settings are now at the top of the page; click into the “Notifications Settings” module to add (or remove) prescribers that you want to receive updates on.

Revamped Patient Directory filters: Filter the patient directory listing by notification status: all, following, not following; this filter will show all individual patients you have subscribed to, both individually and by prescriber.

AltoMD is a complimentary service that allows prescribers and clinic staff to track prescriptions, view medication histories and message directly with the Alto Pharmacy care team. By streamlining prior authorization workflows and coordinating with insurance companies, AltoMD helps clinical teams stay focused on patient care.

If you have any questions, feedback or ideas, please email providersuccess@alto.com or reach out to your Partnerships Manager.

More Choices and Control With New AltoMD Notifications

Mattieu Gamache-Asselin, CEO & Co-founder

Today, we are excited to announce a $250 million Series D funding round, bringing our total funding to over $350M. We are honored to welcome Softbank to our team of investors and thrilled that our existing investors — including Greenoaks, Jackson Square Ventures, OliveTree Capital, and Zola Global — have reinvested to accelerate our mission to bring the Alto experience to 100 million people by 2025.

Over the past four years, we’ve delivered over 1 million prescriptions directly to our patients’ doors, and created a service that makes our patients happier — our patient NPS is over 80 for the fourth year in a row — and healthier — our medication adherence rate is 77% compared to an industry average of 50%.

This has been possible because we’ve learned from experienced community pharmacists, we’ve reimagined and rebuilt the underlying infrastructure of pharmacy, and, most important of all, we’ve built an amazing and diverse team that truly lives out our values every day. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d get to work on such a meaningful mission with such a genuinely passionate and talented team. Whenever I have a tough day and need a boost of energy, I walk through our pharmacies and look around in awe at all the hard work, care and perseverance that goes into making this type of service possible for our patients — from our pharmacists and patient care champions to our couriers and product managers, all working together.

This new round of funding will enable us to take everything we’ve built and learned over the past four years and bring it to more people and more patient demographics. I’ve seen many companies scale too quickly, hire too fast, and in that process lose sight of the heart of the company’s values and mission. What is most important to me as Alto enters this next chapter is that we maintain the same empathy and human connection we’ve had since we were a small community pharmacy.

I want to thank our team for joining us on this mission, to thank our investors for believing in us, and most importantly, I want to thank our patients for reminding me every day of why we’re on this journey.

Alto’s launch in the Seattle market extends our industry-leading patient care model to Washington state.

Starting Tuesday, January 21, fertility patients in the Seattle metro area can now choose Alto’s same-day doorstep delivery and have their medications delivered by our Alto team.

Our evening delivery windows allow patients to more easily plan to be available to receive their packages. Patients schedule deliveries to the location of their choice — home, work or hotel — and on the day of their choosing. They can even track our couriers in real time on our mobile app. Next-day mail order service is also available for patients outside of the courier zone.

Courier delivery windows
Monday — Friday: 6–9 pm PT
Saturday: 2–5 pm PT

Walk-in hours
Monday — Friday: 12:30–7 pm PT
Saturday: 10–5 pm PT (closed on Sundays)

Fertility patients interested in using Alto’s services for their medication needs can ask their care team to send all prescriptions to Alto Pharmacy (via ePrescribe, phone or fax).

Alto knows fertility pharmacy. With more than 15,000 patients served, we understand the treatment complexities and concerns of fertility patients. Our dedicated patient care team is available in the evenings and on weekends to walk you through your first injection or answer questions about medication storage, dosing or interactions. Our fertility deliveries include all necessary ancillary supplies, such as syringes, sharps container and alcohol swabs, and are carefully packaged for temperature control. Delivery is always free.

Alto will automatically connect you with all manufacturer-sponsored financial assistance programs for qualifying prescriptions. Alto also works with many fertility benefits programs, including ProgynyRx, and many leading financing and loan providers. If we cannot bill your insurance, we’ll find you a pharmacy that can.

At this time, Alto is only offering fertility medication services in the Seattle market. Any updates to service areas and offerings will be available at alto.com/locations.

Alto Pharmacy Launches Local Daily Delivery in Seattle Metro Area

Blog