Expires 04/01/2021

Specialty Pharmacy

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

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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. 

Alto / Blog

Two team members at Alto’s Las Vegas Pharmacy spearheaded an initiative to deliver school supplies and meals to children around Las Vegas who depend on school meals and were impacted by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The COVID-19 crisis has had rippling effects across communities. Miles Fray, a Pharmacy Technician, and Bang Le, Pharmacist-In-Charge at Alto Pharmacy Las Vegas, worked together to ensure the team at Alto could do its part to support the community. We spoke with Miles and Bang about the initiative they launched with the health plan Teachers Health Trust (THT) and the non-profit Serving our Kids Foundation to help address childhood hunger for children impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What prompted your team to launch a program to support hungry children in Las Vegas?

Bang: The idea to support children was Miles’ idea. We are all impacted by the quarantine and everything related to COVID-19.  I’ve been living in Las Vegas for the past seven years and wanted to be able to help people in the community. I asked my team what they want to do to give back, and Miles suggested we start a food drive to help out hungry kids.

Miles: I grew up here in Las Vegas, and this is my community. I was interested in starting a service program because when times are tough, any type of positivity you can put out there makes a big difference. I wanted to tap into Alto’s resources to help children in need since we have a lot of unique capabilities, like our expertise planning delivery routes. I know that a lot of kids around here depend on school for their meals and when schools were closed because of the shelter in place order, I figured there would be children in need.

How are you partnering with THT and Serving our Kids Foundation to support the community?

Bang: Once we decided we wanted to do a food drive, we reached out to the CEO of THT, an organization we are already work with (Alto is THT’s preferred pharmacy partner.) THT was already talking to the Serving Our Kids Foundation about a food drive and brought us in to help with delivery. THT identifies children who are impacted by school closures and need food donations; Serving our Kids Foundation collects donations of food and school supplies; and Alto’s delivery couriers provide safe, no contact delivery of meals and school supplies to children in need.

Miles: It’s been a pretty perfect partnership. Each of us has a piece to make the whole initiative work. 

Bang: It’s great that Alto can help bring our systems and processes to help make this program work during this time. Our team already has policies in place for no contact delivery of medications, and we can use our technology platform to easily plan delivery routes for the food donations.

Miles: This came together really quickly after the shelter in place order came through, but we’ve already been able to reach a lot of families. Our couriers have delivered meals to 385 children so far.  With each first delivery to a child, we include a backpack that also includes pens, pencils, a coloring book and other school supplies so the children can prepare for the next school year.  

Bang: We’re really happy to be helping support Serving Our Kids Foundation to carry out their work at this time. They are an amazing organization that delivers 3,500 meals a week and works hard to serve children in need. We’ve also been happy that we can provide extra hours to our courier team members during this time.

What is next for this initiative and your team?

Miles: We are committed to continuing to provide delivery support for meals through the end of this school year in May.

Bang: We are so happy that Alto empowered us to take initiative to start this program. Alto’s support of our goal to help the community helps us stay grounded in our mission as we expand. We’re still a fairly new pharmacy here in Las Vegas and as we grow and start to serve more customers, we don’t want to lose how we started as a local community pharmacy. This program is one way we can support others in the communities we serve.

Read about Alto’s recent launch as a full-service pharmacy in Las Vegas here. Learn more about Teachers Health Trust  and the Serving our Kids Foundation.

Alto Pharmacy’s Las Vegas Team is Committed to Community Service

Marsha Green is a courier with Alto's San Francisco pharmacy. She has been delivering medications to Alto patients for two years. Most recently, as the COVID-19 crisis hit the Bay Area, Marsha has also helped pick up and deliver donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) to local hospitals.

I am a courier at Alto and deliver medications to people at their homes. I’ve been working at Alto as a delivery courier for two years, and I love it - Alto is an awesome company.

The patients are really appreciative, too, which makes my job easier since I mostly interact with patients who are receiving deliveries. Alto goes 110% because the patients know that they wouldn’t have the medicine they need without us, and they show appreciation all the time. It makes me smile when I see how grateful the patients are when they get their delivery.

Is it true you have a family member who also works with Alto?

Yes! Working at Alto is a family affair. My oldest son also works as a courier for Alto. He was working for Alto in Las Vegas and just recently transferred to work here in the Bay Area as a courier. I am a native from San Francisco, and I have three grown boys. It’s fun to be working with my son.

We have entered a new era amid the COVID-19 crisis. How has that impacted you personally and at work?

At first I felt really sad that we are going through this, but I think that everyone in this city is doing everything they can to slow it down.

I’m taking care to make sure I am protecting my health and the health of our customers by wearing gloves and a mask. Alto has been good about setting up procedures to protect me and our customers where I can do a no-contact delivery. Patients are doing their part to follow protocol, and I appreciate that the patients and Alto both do their part to keep me safe.

It’s also been nice to help out by picking up and delivering donations of masks and things for local hospitals.

How have you been supporting Alto’s PPE donation initiative?

When Alto announced their program to pick up PPE donations, I signed up to help. I’ve been picking up donations of masks, gloves and more supplies from individuals around the Bay Area and then delivering them to hospitals. I’ve done about fifty pick-ups of donations over the past couple of weeks.

Every time I drop off donations, the healthcare workers are just ecstatic. It makes me feel good inside that I am doing some good.

I have a funny story related to the donation deliveries. Each day when I pick up the donations I am told where to drop off based on which hospital has the highest need. One day last week I was asked to drop off the PPE donations at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco. My mom worked at St. Mary’s for 32 years and my son, Jason, was the last baby born there. When he was born, they put out a newsletter with a photo of my mom, me and Jason to announce the closure of their pediatrics center. It was so amazing to me that this was all coming full circle when I was asked to deliver donations to them. It brought back good memories and was such a funny coincidence.

I know a lot of folks are losing their jobs right now, and I am grateful to be able to keep doing my work with Alto and helping people out. A lot of patients are really appreciative and have been doing things like leaving out drinks and snacks and masks for me as their delivery person to say thanks. It feels good to have this impact right now.

Learn more about Alto or to sign up for Alto for your prescription delivery here. 
For anyone looking to donate PPE, learn more about Alto’s program here. To request a pickup of donations, fill out this form.

An Altoid Profile: How Marsha Delivers Impact Daily

When Christina heard there was a shortage of PPE at local hospitals she was looking for ways to donate. She was excited when Alto announced a program to pick-up donations directly from individuals via their courier fleet.  

How did you hear about the Alto initiative to pick-up donations of PPE and deliver to hospitals?

I use Alto for my pharmacy needs here in San Francisco. I used to work for a hospital system in Seattle, and I was hearing from my former colleagues that they were going out to hardware stores to buy masks because of shortages. Hearing about their experience made me want to support health workers here in San Francisco, but I didn’t know where to start.  

Due to COVID-19, I have been sheltering in place and looking for ways to support the community from home. Initially, I was just donating money to various food banks. When I heard there was a shortage of PPE and sanitization supplies for frontline healthcare workers here in SF, I wanted to be able to donate what I had, but didn’t know how to do that.  

When I received the email from Alto about the PPE drive, I was excited to be able to use Alto’s courier fleet to pick-up and deliver my donations. I forwarded the announcement to my entire company and posted it on my Instagram to share with friends. 

I donated sanitizing spray bottles, sanitizing wipes and masks.  I didn’t need the volume of supplies I had at home when there is a more urgent need for these supplies at hospitals.

How was the experience of signing up and scheduling a pick-up?

It was super easy to sign up and schedule the donation pick-up. I used the online scheduling form and then Alto kept me updated by text message about when the courier was coming to my apartment. I tracked the driver’s location in real-time which was great because I was able to leave the package of supplies in my downstairs lobby without any contact with the courier. The whole experience was super easy and safe.

How had you previously interacted with Alto, if at all?

I heard about Alto when I did a round of egg freezing last summer. After using Alto for my fertility medications, I switched all of my standard prescriptions to Alto as well.

It’s been a great experience using Alto. It’s easy to track medications and request renewals; scheduling delivery is always easy and reliable. It’s especially helpful right now as I am trying to stay home for shelter in place - Alto’s free home delivery is a resource that everyone should consider right now.

I think it’s so cool that Alto has collected all these masks and other supplies, and I hope others will consider donating!  Even after the pandemic crisis, I also hope Alto will continue to consider collection drives to collect goods for charity and leverage its network of couriers to serve the community.

The photo I shared is of me in Italy. I’ve been so sad seeing how Italy is being affected during this time, and I am dreaming of visiting in 2021 when it is safe to travel again.

For anyone looking to donate PPE, learn more about Alto’s program here. 

To request a pickup of donations, fill out this form.

Delivering Impact: How Alto Helped Me Donate PPE to San Francisco Hospitals

Rafi Benzaquen is Head of Delivery Operations at Alto Pharmacy and is one of the Alto employees leading the charge on a donation drive for critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers. We caught up with Rafi to learn more about the program and how Alto is giving back to the community in the face of COVID-19. To learn more about the PPE donation program or to request a pickup of supplies, check out our blog here.

What do you do at Alto and what led you to join Alto?

I run our delivery operations at Alto, managing systems to ensure that thousands of patients receive their medications each day. I started my career in strategy consulting and often felt disconnected from the impact of my work which is what led me to start working at startups. I worked on operations and driver support at Uber for over four years. I loved being able to have an impact on the driver experience and saw how much Uber could have an impact on these folks' lives.  

I joined Alto because I was inspired by Alto’s mission to help patients, and I’m able to have an impact in creating jobs and opportunities for couriers.

How did you get involved in efforts to leverage Alto’s work to get donations of PPE to hospitals?

For me, this program is personal. I have friends and family who work in the medical field - my dad is a doctor in New York and my best friend is a doctor in LA. I’ve been hearing from them firsthand what they are dealing with due to COVID-19, such as friends stating: “I have one N95 mask and I have to re-use it.” I have really internalized what is going on and realize how important it is to help.

I feel lucky that I can leverage Alto’s systems and expertise to have an impact here. Our company values include leading from a place of empathy and focusing on impact. I am grateful that our leadership team has enthusiastically supported our efforts to launch this program.

How are you leveraging Alto’s systems and your experience to help organize pickups of PPE donations?

Because of the pharmacy delivery work that we do at Alto, we have the couriers, the reach, and the personnel for this type of program. Our team is collecting info from people who have supplies to donate, coordinating courier routes to collect donations, and then partnering with other organizations such as GetMePPE - Bay Area to help ensure an equitable distribution of donations to the hospitals that have the highest need each day.

Our CEO committed to cover the costs of paying Alto couriers to pick up donations and drop them off at hospitals. Aside from the impact on frontline healthcare personnel, this program has also created more jobs for couriers, many of whom have been laid off by other part-time jobs. We’ve also put processes in place to safeguard courier health when they collect donations and are paying a higher rate for this project. 

What has been the impact of this effort so far?

We launched this offering in the Bay Area just last week and we have already received a great response.  We’ve collected >3,700 masks, >13,500 gloves, as well as sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizer, and goggles to donate to numerous hospitals throughout the Bay Area. We have more pickup times available this week, and I’m excited to see what else we collect.

We’re also talking to a number of different hospitals and organizations to explore how our expertise and experience managing delivery logistics can help with other efforts to get PPE to frontline healthcare workers.  

I’ve been blown away by how many people have already donated through us and am excited that we are expanding this program to Seattle, Los Angeles and Orange County. I feel really grateful that Alto is working to support our communities who are dealing with the impacts of COVID-19.

I want to thank everyone at Alto who has been involved in this effort. Specifically, Frances Schendle, Hannah Byam, Jaime LaFontaine, Kevin Ruiz, Joe Young, Spencer Armini, Hilary Dalrymple and our amazing couriers who have been instrumental in execution of this program.

Powered by People Who Care: An Altoid Profile

Mattieu Gamache-Asselin, Co-founder & CEO, and Jamie Karraker, Co-founder & CTO

Since our start as a community pharmacy here in San Francisco’s Mission District more than four years ago, Alto has remained committed to delivering on medicine’s true purpose — to improve quality of life for everyone who needs it. This mission, realized through doorstep medication delivery and remote access to pharmacists, is key to ensuring uninterrupted access to critical treatments and helping contain the community spread of COVID-19. 

In this period of uncertainty and change, here are our commitments to you:

We are here to serve you. We remain open for business at all locations, with delivery windows seven days a week and couriers at the ready. We’ve implemented a no-contact delivery protocol to ensure the safety of both our customers and our couriers. Our shelves are stocked with both common and specialty medications, and our pharmacists are available to answer your question by phone, text or secure message in our mobile app so you can stay at home. 

If you have family members, neighbors and friends in our service areas who would benefit from the safety of home delivery, please share Alto’s information with them. Our team is ready to assist with prescription transfers and insurance coordination, and most medications are available for same-day delivery. If for any reason we can’t fill your prescription, we’ll help you find a pharmacy that can.

None of this is possible without the hard work, long hours, flexibility, and dedication of our team. Every role at Alto is critical to ensuring our continued operational readiness, but our local pharmacy fulfillment teams and courier fleet gracefully take on additional risk to ensure prompt delivery of medications. To recognize these contributions, we are raising hourly pay for our frontline fulfillment team members by $2/hour, effective March 31st, for the duration of the stay-at-home order in their respective locations. We’re also providing a one-time bonus payment of $140 to members of our courier fleet on April 10th. 

We have the utmost respect for our healthcare colleagues working on the frontlines of treating this pandemic. We are partnering with doctors, nurses and clinic staff to assist with the transition to telemedicine care. We are carefully managing our supply chain to guard against potential shortages for your patients. And we are working with area health systems, governments and employers to make sure that Alto’s free doorstep medication delivery is available as an option to as many individuals as possible.

We’ve also leveraged our courier fleet to facilitate a personal protective equipment (PPE) drive in the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Seattle. In just over a week, we’ve coordinated more than 100 donation pick-ups with more than 4,700 masks and respirators, 16,000 gloves, goggles, and cleaning supplies with delivery to area hospitals. 

We are honored to be your pharmacy partner and play a small role in ensuring the health and safety of our communities. 

Matt Gamache-Asselin and Jamie Karraker
Co-founders, Alto Pharmacy

Re-creating a Community Pharmacy in the Time of COVID-19

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

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

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

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