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It’s official: Alto Pharmacy is a great place to work! We’re honored to join the community of Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies based on team member feedback and a rigorous assessment of our company’s culture and benefits.

Join us in delivering our industry-leading pharmacy care to millions of people across the country. As a member of the team, you’ll play an integral role in improving our customers’ quality of life and redefining what’s possible in pharmacy. 

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Blog | Alto Pharmacy

For many Americans living with a chronic health condition, prescription medications are necessary to manage symptoms and prevent complications. But following a treatment plan can be easier said than done. There are many considerations involved, from managing medication interactions and side effects to staying on track with related testing and follow-up appointments. And of the 66% of U.S. adults who are prescribed medication, only half take their medication as prescribed.

National Pharmacists Month Spotlight: Wei-Lin Chang

At Alto, medication therapy management pharmacists like Wei-Lin Chang help patients navigate all the complexities of managing a chronic disease. As part of our coverage of American Pharmacist Month 2022, we spoke to Wei-Lin about her professional path, the challenges of retail pharmacy, and the importance of medication education.

What motivated you to pursue a career in pharmacy?

I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do when I first entered college. My parents encouraged me to pursue a career in healthcare, but I knew I was a bit too squeamish around needles to become a doctor or nurse.

I took a chemistry class that I really enjoyed and decided to do all the pharmacy prereqs. I then did an internship with the head of pharmacy at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Through that experience, I saw firsthand that pharmacists were a critical liaison between patients and doctors, with so much valuable information about medication strength, directions, dosing, and administration.

After that, I pretty much knew that pharmacy was for me. I’ve been practicing since 2002.

What challenges have you encountered as a pharmacist?

Before Alto, I worked in traditional retail pharmacy. In that setting, you’re so busy as a pharmacist — it’s one customer after another after another.

I worked both daytime and night shifts, and it was during the night shift, when the store was much more quiet, that I could really counsel patients without feeling so pressed for time. During the day, I simply didn’t have the free minutes to always answer patient questions or give recommendations.

Another challenge I faced was the perception of our profession. At the beginning of my career, in the early 2000s, many people I encountered didn’t know a pharmacist did much beyond putting pills in bottles and handing them off to customers. Not only did this lead to frustration from my customers, who would wonder what we were doing and why it was taking so long, it led to missed opportunities to more actively participate in a patient’s health journey. 

More medication education for patients is an urgent need within American healthcare. People taking multiple medications have to be mindful of potential side effects and medication interactions.

The growing field of medication therapy management is an opportunity for pharmacists to play an even bigger role in patient health, and I’m very proud to work for a company that prioritizes this particular area of pharmacy.

As a medication therapy management (MTM) pharmacist, I contact patients who take multiple medications — often multiple heart medications — and review their entire regimen over the phone. I make sure that they understand the purpose of each medication they’re taking and are on track with related testing.

For example, it’s important to get your liver function checked every 6-12 months if you’re taking cholesterol-lowering medications that are processed by the liver, or to get your A1C levels checked every 3-6 months if you’re taking diabetes medication.

We also discuss side effects, interactions, when to take medication, and what food to take it with. Too often, there isn’t the space for these conversations between pharmacists and patients, but they are so essential to a patient’s overall health. 

I love our pharmacy specializations. It’s unique to have a team that focuses solely on patients and another team that focuses on fulfillment. Not all pharmacies have a medication therapy management program, and it’s possible at Alto in part because of our smart allocation of resources.

Being able to use all of my time to focus on my core job functions is such a contrast to retail pharmacy, where you’re constantly bombarded from all sides at once.

As a pharmacist, what does “care” mean to you?

Care to me means going above and beyond for your patients and making sure all loose ends are tied. As an example, I recently initiated a transfer for one of the heart medications a patient takes. At Alto, we always complete every single step of the prescription transfer process on the patient’s behalf. He was so appreciative, and when I got off the phone, I could tell from his voice that he was smiling ear to ear. That’s the experience I want all of my patients to have.

This is part of a series of pharmacist profiles to recognize American Pharmacist Month 2022. To keep the Pharmacist Month celebrations going, meet patient care pharmacist Travis Allison and specialty patient care pharmacist Gabrielle Kaplan.

Many medications for respiratory conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are taken by using a metered dose inhaler (MDI), also referred to as a hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) inhaler. These handheld devices — one of several types of inhalers used to treat asthma and COPD — are pressurized canisters of aerosol medication in a plastic container with a mouthpiece. They use a chemical propellant to release medication from the canister. 

The Right Way to Use a Metered Dose Inhaler

Many individuals use a plastic tube called a spacer with their metered dose inhaler, which can help ensure that the full dose of medication is received. Spacers may also be used to reduce side effects of corticosteroid inhalers such as mouth and throat irritation. Ask your doctor if a spacer is right for your health needs.

Taking your medication exactly as prescribed is critical to managing symptoms of asthma, COPD, and other lung diseases. If you and your doctor have decided that a metered dose inhaler is a good method of medication delivery for your treatment plan, it’s important to learn about proper use and cleaning of the device. Below, we explain how to use a metered dose inhaler with and without a spacer and share other considerations when using these devices.

The steps below offer a general overview of how to use a metered dose inhaler correctly. Consult with your doctor for more specific instructions. If using your inhaler for the first time, or if it’s been at least two weeks since your last use, be sure to prime your inhaler by spraying several puffs into the air to ensure that it is working.

1. Remove the cap from the inhaler and shake the inhaler for a few seconds. If using a spacer, remove the cap from the spacer and place the inhaler into the open end of the spacer.

2. If you are using your inhaler without a spacer, exhale completely and place the inhaler’s mouthpiece in your mouth and seal your lips around it. If you are using a spacer, place the spacer’s mouthpiece in your mouth first and then exhale completely.

3. Begin to inhale slowly, pressing down on the canister once.

4. Continue to inhale slowly and deeply for about five seconds.

5. Hold your breath for ten seconds so that the medication can enter your airways.

6. If your doctor has instructed you to take more than one puff of your medication, repeat these steps as needed, waiting about a minute between puffs.

If taking a corticosteroid medication, rinse your mouth with water after each dose to prevent mouth and throat irritation and oral yeast infections. Using a spacer will also minimize the chance of these side effects.

Cleaning your metered dose inhaler and spacer

Most metered dose inhalers can be cleaned by removing the medication canister and rinsing the plastic container under warm running water. If you are unable to remove the canister from the container, wipe the mouthpiece with a cloth or cotton swab. Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for your inhaler as needed.

To clean your spacer, remove the soft ring at the end and soak both the tube and ring in warm water with light soap. Clean and rinse thoroughly and let the pieces air dry.

Frequency of cleaning depends on how often you take your medication. Consult with your doctor about when to clean your inhaler and spacer.

Keeping track of medication in your inhaler

It’s important to keep track of how much medication is left in your metered dose inhaler so that you can stay on top of refills and avoid any missed doses. For many metered dose inhalers, the total number of puffs will be printed on the medication canister. You must discard your inhaler after you have used that many puffs even if your inhaler continues to dispense medication. Priming puffs count toward the total number of puffs.

If you use a metered dose inhaler every day to take maintenance medication, divide the total number of puffs in your inhaler by the number puffs you take every day. That number is how many days you can use your inhaler before you need a refill. If you use your metered dose inhaler as needed for quick relief, you’ll have to keep track of each individual puff. Some metered dose inhalers now come with built-in counting devices, and there are also external dose counters that can attach to the inhaler. Ask your healthcare provider for recommendations.

There are other delivery methods available for asthma and COPD medications. Your healthcare provider can advise you on the best option for your individual treatment plan.

Dry powder inhalers are another option for medication delivery. Like metered dose inhalers, dry powder inhalers are a small handheld device, but the medication is in the form of a dry powder. Many dry powder inhalers provide a visual indication that the full dose of medication has been delivered, which is helpful for many individuals, as well as a built-in dose counter.

You can also take most asthma and COPD medications using a nebulizer, which transforms liquid medication into a fine mist. Nebulizers take longer than inhalers to deliver medication, but they are often helpful for those who find it difficult to properly use an inhaler. Many children with asthma use nebulizers.

Our team of pharmacists is here to help you get started with your medication for asthma or COPD. We can walk you through the steps of using your inhaler, discuss potential side effects, and answer any other questions you may have. In addition, we offer free, same-day delivery and medication management tools like reminders and auto refills in our app to make it as simple as possible to stay on track with managing your asthma. 

Reach out any time through in-app secure messaging or by phone at 1-800-874-5881.

This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

If you take insulin daily to manage type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it’s important to choose a method of insulin delivery that fits your lifestyle and diabetes management needs. Many individuals who are often on-the-go find insulin pens to be most convenient given their portable size, discrete nature, and quick administration time. 

What to Know About Insulin Pens

Read on for more information about these devices, including the different types of insulin pens and what to consider when choosing one.

An insulin pen combines insulin and a syringe into a single device, allowing for a faster and easier administration than syringes. When it is time to administer an insulin injection, all you have to do is attach a new needle and dial the correct dosage on the pen. If you take multiple types of insulin every day, many insulin pen manufacturers offer color-coded pens or different designs to help you quickly identify each pen’s type of insulin.

While insulin pens simplify insulin delivery and how you measure your doses, you will still need to self-administer injections throughout the day. This is in contrast to an insulin pump, which automatically delivers doses of insulin at specific times. If you require many insulin injections each day, you may want to ask your healthcare provider if an insulin pump would be a good fit for your diabetes management needs.

There are two main types of insulin pens: disposable and reusable.

A disposable insulin pen contains a prefilled cartridge used for multidosing. You will discard the pen once the cartridge is empty or when the insulin expires, depending on the type of insulin you are using. These devices are sometimes referred to as “flex pens” or “quick pens.” Common brands include Lantus®, Tresiba®, Humalog®, Novolog®, and Basaglar®.

A reusable pen contains cartridges of insulin that are discarded once empty or when the insulin expires. You will replace the empty or expired cartridge with a new one and reuse the pen. These are sometimes referred to as “smart pens.” Common brands include InPen® and NovoPen®.

Follow the steps below to safely administer your insulin injections with a disposable or reusable insulin pen. A diabetes educator or healthcare provider can answer any questions and help you become more comfortable using the device.

1. Verify the expiration date of your insulin and do a visual check to make sure it has no clumps — most pens have a visible insulin reservoir. If the insulin is cloudy, roll the pen for a minute. (If the insulin is clear, you do not have to roll the pen.) If you take multiple types of insulin, make sure you are using the correct type.

2. Remove the pen cover or cap and sterilize the pen tip with alcohol using a cotton swab or gauze pad.

3. Attach a new needle to the pen, and have a sharps container ready for the used equipment. (You will need to use a new needle for each injection.)

4. Prime the pen if using it for the first time. Dial the dosage knob to two units, hold the pen with the needle pointing up, and tap the pen gently to let any air bubbles rise to the top. Press and hold the knob and look for a drop of insulin. If you do not see any insulin, repeat these steps as needed until at least one drop appears. This removes air bubbles from the needle and ensures that the needle is properly functioning. 

5. Choose an injection site, typically your abdomen, thigh, or arm, and wipe it with an alcohol swab. Hold the needle at the angle instructed by your doctor, most often a 90-degree angle.

6. Insert the needle into the skin and push the button on your insulin pen to deliver the injection. Wait ten seconds to make sure all of the insulin has been absorbed into your skin.

Unused pens must be refrigerated. However, do not place them in the freezer. Once in use, you may keep your insulin pen at room temperature. It’s important to avoid extreme temperatures as much as possible, so do not leave them anywhere where they will get too hot, like a car, or too cold. In addition, check the product’s package insert for an expiration date or consult your doctor about when to discard a pen or cartridge with unused insulin.

What to consider when choosing an insulin pen

You should consult with your doctor before choosing an insulin pen. In addition, consider the following factors:

The type of insulin you take — some insulin pens are only compatible with specific types of insulin.

Your insulin dosing needs — each pen has a maximum dosage. In addition, different pens can deliver insulin in increments of a half unit, one unit, or two units.

Your insurance coverage — ask your insurance provider what coverage they offer of insulin pens, if any, and explore the costs of other insulin delivery methods to determine the best fit for your needs.

Most insurance plans have separate medical and pharmacy benefits. In most cases, professional services provided by your doctor will fall under medical benefits while prescription diabetes medications — including insulin — will fall under pharmacy benefits. 

Some diabetes supplies, including many reusable insulin pens, are covered under a third type of benefits: the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) section of your policy. There may be restrictions on the brands or suppliers that are available, and it’s important to check with your specific policy to understand what will be covered and under which sections.

Many disposable insulin pens are often covered with your pharmacy benefits, in which case Alto may be able to help you get started with using an insulin pen. We will work with your insurance (if applicable) and any third party savings programs so that you can get your insulin pen at the lowest possible price.

A diabetes pharmacy partner you can rely on

At Alto, we believe a pharmacy should be a partner in your diabetes care. We have a dedicated diabetes support team to ensure that you have everything you need to follow through on your individualized treatment plan. Reach out any time through in-app secure messaging or by phone at 1-800-874-5881.

All third party trademarks (including logos and icons) referenced by Alto Pharmacy remain the property of their respective owners. Unless specifically identified as such, Alto’s use of third party trademarks does not indicate any relationship, sponsorship or endorsement between Alto and the owners of these trademarks.

It’s official: Alto Pharmacy is a great place to work! We’re honored to join the community of Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies.

Alto Pharmacy Named Great Place to Work®

It’s official: Alto Pharmacy is a great place to work! We’re honored to join the community of Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies based on team member feedback and a rigorous assessment of our company’s culture and benefits. This important recognition is a testament to the dedication of the entire Alto team and the vision of our founders to create a healthcare company truly anchored on the needs and experiences of the customer.

80% of our team says that Alto is a great place of work, compared to just 59% of employees at  other companies that participated in this year’s assessment. Here are other key takeaways from our team’s’ responses:

93% of our team members say that you are made to feel welcome when you join Alto.

88% say that people care about each other here.

86% say that they are able to take time off from work when needed.

Every company has its own unique culture, but there are two things that all great workplaces share: trust in company leadership and a strong sense of pride in the work. For many Alto team members, being part of a mission-driven company is one of the best parts of working here. 

Our mission — to improve the quality of life for everyone who needs medicine — guides us in every business decision, every day. From fostering an inclusive culture that invests in talent from the same communities as our patients, to building a pharmacy model that meets individuals where they are in their health journey, everything we do at Alto is anchored on delivering meaningful change. 

When asked what makes Alto a great place to work, our team members emphasized our guiding company values — including our commitment to putting patients first and leading with empathy — and getting to spend each workday with colleagues who are also inspired and motivated by those values.

“Our bold, patient-centered mission creates a powerful level of empathy across the entire team,” shared Rob Anderson, Alto’s Head of Talent . “The people who work here are one of the best parts of coming into work, and one of the top reasons our workplace is so rewarding.”

And taking care of our team members is just as important as ensuring we leave no patient behind. In response to the past year’s unprecedented challenges, we introduced Alto Recharge Week, which includes expanded time off for all team members. This reset period allows team members to unplug and recharge, and it’s also a small show of  appreciation for how they supported our patients and healthcare providers throughout these challenging times.  

It’s an exciting moment to be part of Alto’s mission. Since our founding in 2015, we’ve been focused on delivering a totally new model of pharmacy care. Our community-based, courier-first pharmacy model simplifies the entire prescription process and is tailored to each patient’s unique needs, leading to better  outcomes, healthier lives, and happier customers. And with every year, Alto’s impact continues to grow:

More than 36 million individuals now live within Alto’s free same-day courier service zones. 

In the past twelve months, we opened new locations in New York City, Houston, Dallas, and San Jose and expanded our coverage areas in Seattle, Las Vegas, and Denver. 

We've expanded our specialized resources for patients living with diabetes and managing heart and lung conditions .

We’ve accomplished so much over the past six years, and we’re still just getting started.

“I don’t know a single person who hasn’t needed something from a pharmacy at some point, and there’s still so many people across the country who have yet to experience our unique community pharmacy experience,” Alto’s Recruiting Manager Lauren Binet said. “That potential for impact is incredibly motivating.”

As our geographic footprint has grown, so has our team. In the past two years alone, we’ve quadruped our team to more than 1,000 Altoids!

Join us in delivering our industry-leading pharmacy care to millions of people across the country. As a member of the team, you’ll play an integral role in improving our customers’ quality of life and redefining what’s possible in pharmacy.

View open roles in design, engineering, IT, sales, patient care, and more.

About Great Place to Work Certification™

Great Place to Work® Certification™ is the most definitive “employer-of-choice” recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience – specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work-Certified.

The first two members of our Advisory Board are Dr. James Hildreth and Jennifer Kent. Their years of experience as leaders in the healthcare industry will be invaluable to us as we continue to grow.

Alto Pharmacy's newly formed Advisory Board launches today with two anchor team members.

Since our launch in 2015, Alto has been committed to fulfilling medicine’s true purpose, and improving quality of life, for everyone who needs it. Today, we announce our newly formed Advisory Board and our first two anchor members, who will help guide Alto towards our mission, advise on key decisions, and support strategic initiatives. We’ve formed the Advisory Board to support our leadership as we navigate the regulatory landscape, launch new features to modernize the pharmacy experience, and adhere to the highest standards of operational excellence and patient care.

The first two members of our Advisory Board are Dr. James Hildreth and Jennifer Kent. Their years of experience as leaders in the healthcare industry will be invaluable to us as we continue to grow. 

Dr. Hildreth is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s oldest and largest private historically Black academic health sciences centers. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, his Ph.D. in immunology from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was the first Black American in the 125-year history of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to earn full professorship with tenure and is internationally known for his influential HIV research.


Jennifer Kent served as the Director for the California Department of Health Care Services, where she led the second largest public healthcare system in the nation, with an annual budget of over $100B and serving over 13 million Californians. She oversaw the administration of 24 managed care plans as well as 56 county behavioral health plans. She has also held leadership roles in the Health & Human Services Agency, Governor's Office and has experience in the private sector as a lobbyist, consultant, and association executive. She has more than 15 years of health administration and policy experience in California.

This is an important milestone for Alto, and we look forward to working closely with Dr. Hildreth and Jennifer on the future of Alto. 

Today, we announce our newly formed Advisory Board and our first two anchor members, who will help guide Alto towards our mission, advise on key decisions, and support strategic initiatives.

Announcing Alto’s Advisory Board

Alto is committed to ensuring affordable, timely access to medications and full-service pharmacy coverage, including specialty medications for the treatment of complex and chronic conditions.

Hims & Hers, the direct-to-consumer digital health company, has partnered with Alto Pharmacy to offer free, same-day courier medication delivery for customers accessing primary care services through its growing telehealth platform. 

Patients using the Hims & Hers platform to access primary care services in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, Seattle, Las Vegas and Denver-Boulder communities will have the option to select Alto as their preferred pharmacy for prescription delivery. Prescriptions for patients selecting Alto will flow automatically to Alto for fulfillment, and patients can use the Alto app to select their preferred date and time for free home delivery, review copay and medication info, and message a pharmacist with any questions. 

“At Alto, we’re constantly looking for new ways to improve the healthcare and pharmacy experience and we’re excited to partner with Hims & Hers to offer free, same-day courier medication delivery for their patients,” says Omar Nagji, Vice President of Enterprise at Alto Pharmacy. “Our partnership with Hims & Hers offers patients control, discretion, and pharmacist access without making a trip to a doctor’s office or pharmacy.”

“Hims & Hers is a natural partner to Alto’s courier-based platform,” says Melissa Baird, COO of Hims & Hers. “We’re excited to work with Alto to bring the ease and convenience of their same-day delivery experience to those using Hims & Hers to access primary care services."

Streamlined digital healthcare services are more critical than ever as patients look to balance healthcare needs with social distancing considerations, and are key to expanding access to traditionally underserved communities. Alto is committed to ensuring affordable, timely access to medications and full-service pharmacy coverage, including specialty medications for the treatment of complex and chronic conditions.

Hims & Hers customers using Alto will get full access to Alto’s exceptional care and services: price investigation and automatic coupon application, easy access to chat with a pharmacist, medication reminders and other support tools, and the option to streamline all medications for the household into one easy delivery. Alto’s safe, secure courier delivery is always free.

Hims & Hers Partners with Alto for Same-Day Prescription Delivery for Primary Care Patients

If you are one of the thousands of womxn navigating these changes to your coverage, here’s what you should know about your options.

At Alto, we believe that affordable and equitable access to a medication as basic and fundamental as birth control should be protected by law.

A recent Supreme Court decision has changed the rules that employers must follow when determining what medications will be covered at no-cost by employer-sponsored insurance plans. Per the July 8th decision, employers can now opt out of providing no-cost coverage for contraceptives (previously required under the Affordable Care Act). This change may mean that you now have an increased out-of-pocket costs - or may have no insurance coverage at all - for your birth control medications.

Birth control is essential health care - nine in ten women will use contraceptives in their lifetime. At Alto, we believe that affordable and equitable access to a medication as basic and fundamental as birth control should be protected by law. 

If you are one of the thousands of womxn navigating these changes to your coverage, here’s what you should know about your options:

Generic options - If your current medication now has a high out-of-pocket cost, you can ask your healthcare provider if there are generic options or other alternatives to consider that may be more affordable, while still being safe and effective. 

Coupons and discounts - Ask your pharmacy to confirm they’ve checked for any available manufacturer coupons, copay cards, or savings programs that you may be eligible for.

Health savings account - If you have access to a health savings account (usually available with high deductible health plans), pay for your birth control with your HSA funds. HSA contributions are tax-free.

If you live in one of Alto’s service areas, we will automatically apply any available coupons, search for lower cost alternatives, and coordinate any switches with your healthcare provider so you can have affordable access to your medication, on schedule and without delays. 

Our pharmacies stock dozens of birth control options, all available for free, same-day courier delivery. Reach out to our pharmacists with any questions - we’re available seven days a week via secure messaging in our mobile app or phone.

1 https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-use-united-states, https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/planned-parenthood-announces-nationwide-fight-for-birth-control

If you are one of the thousands of womxn navigating changes to your coverage, here’s what you should know about your options.

Tips for Navigating Birth Control Costs

Today, we are excited to announce a $250 million Series D funding round, bringing our total funding to over $350M.

Bringing Alto to a Neighborhood Near You

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 Pharmacy Launches Local Daily Delivery in Denver-Boulder Metro Area

Alto’s launch in the Denver-Boulder market marks Alto’s first courier-based expansion outside of the West Coast.

Starting today, October 14, fertility patients in the Denver-Boulder 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: 

2:00 – 5:00 pm MT for Denver metro area

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). 

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

Alto knows fertility pharmacy. With more than 50,000 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.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and completeness.

AltoMD Saves Times and Adds Transparency

Editor's Note: The post was updated on November 8, 2021 to reflect the rebrand of AltoMD to Alto Connect.

Alto Connect makes it easier for doctors and nurses to communicate and collaborate with a pharmacy. Alto Connect is an online platform where providers can track the status of a prescription, patient, or prior authorization. Rather than relying on phone and fax and responding to endless voicemails, providers can message a pharmacist for an expedient response in between patient visits. Alto Connect also eliminates a number of administrative hassles, such as processing prior authorizations and contacting insurance companies, and provides valuable insights like compliance reports to improve the efficacy of care.

Fewer Phone Calls, Faxes, and Messages with Pharmacy Requests

On March 19th, Alto launched a new feature on Alto Connect called Pharmacy Requests, which is a one stop shop for a provider’s most pressing tasks, whether it’s a quick clarification, therapeutic substitution, or providing information for a prior authorization. Alto’s streamlined form eliminates excess messaging and overflowing inboxes, allowing you to focus on what’s most important — your patients.

Here we’ll take you through the before and after to illustrate what has changed on Alto Connect. Historically, providers had to make sense of a confusing list of messages. It was hard to determine what was most important and where to spend one’s time.

As seen below, now, a provider is alerted to how many outstanding pharmacy requests require his or her attention. We’ve categorized them into three buckets:1) Prior Authorizations, 2) Clarifications, and 3) Therapeutic Substitutions. This makes it easy to see not only what but which patient’s medications require follow-up.

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

Alto Connect Saves Times and Adds Transparency

Empowering Patients By Accelerating Healthcare Innovation

Editor's Note: This post was updated on November 8, 2021, to reflect the rebrand of AltoMD to Alto Connect.

Today, I’m proud to announce Alto’s Series C round of $50 million. Over the past three years, we’ve proven that Alto’s model works for doctors and patients alike, reducing administration time for physicians and improving drug adherence rates for patients. This new funding will enable us to expand, reaching even more patients, and to further develop our full-stack platform, driving better health outcomes at a lower cost.

Alto removes the complexity from prescriptions to improve patients’ quality of life. Every prescription requires coordination among doctors, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and of course the patient. Traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies depend on fax, phone and paper, which causes delays, errors in fulfillment, poor adherence rates, and 20 hours of administrative work a week per physician.

We’ve reimagined and completely rebuilt the pharmacy infrastructure to eradicate these problems. Through our provider platform (Alto Connect) and pharmacy management software, doctors and insurers spend less time on administration and more time on patient care. For patients, we offer free same-day prescription delivery, but more importantly, cost transparency, personalized in-app and phone support, and faster coordination with doctors and insurance companies to get patients the care they need. Learn more about our app.

The typical Silicon Valley playbook is to enter many new markets rapidly, throw money at problems, and figure things out on the fly. That’s never been Alto’s approach. Because we’re working with critical, life-saving medications, messing up is not an option. We’ve diligently, methodically built robust systems to make certain we leave no patient behind, and we’ll keep that mentality as we expand. Now that we’ve built our critical foundations — the platforms and clinical expertise — it’s time to scale.

Geographic expansion
We want to make sure all of America can benefit from the Alto experience. Last month, we opened our HQ2 in Denver, where we’ve already hired 60 employees across patient care, pharmacy and clinical operations, as a stepping stone to nationwide expansion.

Therapeutic area expansion
So far, we’ve focused on deeply understanding and serving the retail, dermatology, fertility, biologics, and HIV markets. We’re now bringing the same empathy and customized service to autoimmune, endocrinology, and cardiology — areas where patients are frequently overwhelmed with logistics, paperwork and side effects, and where Alto could offer deep value as a trusted partner.

Pharmacy represents 10% of healthcare spending, a $3.3 trillion market. Most pharmacies focus on just capturing as much of that 10% as possible. A select few are working to eliminate the ineffective portions of pharmacy spending. But even they look at the pharmacy spending in isolation.

The truth is, pharmacy shouldn’t be viewed as a disjoint piece. At Alto, we believe better pharmacy will make all of healthcare more effective and reduce healthcare spending overall. We’ve already seen progress — for instance, Alto’s primary adherence rate is 40% higher than the industry average.

From patients, we’ve heard, “Being able to speak to an Alto pharmacist directly allowed me to figure out how my drugs were interacting and causing painful side effects.” Some patients are cost-sensitive and consider skipping the medications that manage their chronic conditions and prevent hospitalizations. We’ve helped by delivering $11 million in medication savings to our patients so far.

From doctors, a common refrain is: “This is the first time my patients have talked to me positively about a pharmacy, and it’s the first time I can actually see what happens to a prescription after I write it.” This experience is why doctors have been the primary fuel of Alto’s growth. UCSF, One Medical, Stanford, and over 10,000 other providers recommend Alto as their preferred pharmacy.

This early progress is energizing, and only possible because of the dedication of Alto’s hardworking team, investors, and partners. Thank you all! The feedback I’m getting from the health ecosystem is even more inspiring — that our potential is nothing short of transformative for our patients and healthcare as a whole. As far as we’ve come, we’re only just getting started.

Why We Prioritize Diversity at Alto

The Alto team has been growing quickly, doubling in the last 6 months, and we are thinking a lot about the importance of diversity to building a world-class company. We are putting a lot of time and energy into making sure we build a diverse team and an inclusive culture, and one of the foundational discussions we’ve had is why diversity matters to us. Aside from the fundamental ethical reasons, having a diverse team is particularly important for us as a healthcare company because it allows us to to empathize with our patients, innovate on our product, and hire the best teammates who share our values.

I wrote an internal post codifying how we prioritize diversity, which we presented at an all-hands meeting, and subsequently in every new hire’s onboarding.

I’m sharing this publicly in hopes that it can help frame how other companies discuss the business case for diversity.

Most of any success I’ve had comes down to luck. My family prioritized education and had money to spend on it. I went to an elite prep school, then MIT, then had my first ever job at Facebook. Each step led to the next, with a lot of help along the way. In my time in Silicon Valley, I’ve seen the limits of my well-off, millennial, straight, white, male perspective. I’ve seen the ways that my type of privilege leads to the proliferation of companies building photo sharing apps and other tools that make life easier for the 1%. The massive changes in technology in the last decade have dramatically increased my quality of life, but those who don’t share my privilege have not seen nearly the benefit. Healthcare is clearly broken and hasn’t seen many improvements from improving technology, and many of those most affected by bad healthcare are also the most underserved by the tech industry. We founded Alto to use our backgrounds in tech and our skill sets to try to give some of the benefits of technology to those underserved by the current state of the healthcare industry.

I can have a hard time understanding the thoughts and feelings of our diverse patient base, given my life story and the fact that I’ve never had prescriptions. In the early days of Alto, we primarily dispensed birth control. We thought it was a good beachhead market of young, tech-savvy users, with a long lifetime of monthly refills. We discovered very quickly that birth control has a lot of different brands, some much more expensive than the generic equivalents. I assumed everyone would want the cheaper form, given that they have chemically identical active ingredients. Fortunately, though, some of our earliest teammates were women, and they helped me understand that when dealing with hormones, small differences can really affect how you feel. We then asked our patients about side effects they’d encountered switching to generics and found out how common these issues really were, and how frustrating it could be when the pharmacy tried to switch them to a generic. Now, we make sure to stock every brand of birth control.

In trying to empathize with our patients and my teammates here at Alto, I have seen firsthand the benefits of a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. We realize that we are a company founded by millennial white males from relatively privileged backgrounds. This makes it even more pressing that we focus our energy on building a diverse team and inclusive culture.

Diversity means many different things to different people, so I think it’s important to define exactly what we mean here. What we’re really after is diversity of thought and skills applied towards a singular mission with unifying values. It’s not always easy to know whether someone has a different way of thinking about the world, so we often use proxies to accomplish this. By attempting to build a team with a broad representation of ability, age, education, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and personality type, we can hopefully build a team that also brings a diversity of thought and experiences.

As a pharmacy, we have one of the most diverse user bases of any product. Almost everyone uses the pharmacy at some point in their life, and so the population of people that we serve is just as diverse as the entire population. We serve patients of every age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and socio-economic status. Having a diverse team allows us to understand and empathize with the people Alto serves. We are building the best pharmacy for everybody, everywhere.

One of our core values is “Patients come first,” and in order to truly embody that value, it is imperative that we have a diverse team. Whether we are designing a new feature to improve our fertility onboarding flow, or talking through a complex prior authorization with an elderly medicare patient who knows English only as a second language, having a diverse team helps us to put ourselves in our patients’ shoes and empathize with their challenges.

As a healthcare company, we are often interacting with patients when they are at their most vulnerable.

We have a responsibility to our patients, and the best way to serve them is to be sensitive to their needs and experiences.

Real innovation happens when you combine people from diverse backgrounds, with different skill sets, to solve a hard problem together. Research has shown over and over the positive effect of diversity on innovation (here, here), and diversity played a key role in many of the greatest inventions of all time. The transistor, a critical building block of the modern computer, was invented at Bell Labs in the 1940s, by a diverse group of scientists and engineers. According to Walter Isaacson,

“The lesson of Bell Labs is that most feats of sustained innovation cannot and do not occur in an iconic garage or the workshop of an ingenious inventor. They occur when people of diverse talents and mind-sets and expertise are brought together.”

Fixing the broken pharmacy industry is an extremely difficult challenge, and we will need a broad range of people, with different ways of thinking, to help solve it. An engineer can quickly write code to automate a tedious task that a pharmacist has to do everyday, like looking up patients to reach out to those who may want a consultation. A pharmacy technician can easily help a designer figure out what the right packaging looks like for fertility ancillary items. By building a team where people with different backgrounds, skill sets, and ways of thinking collaborate daily, eat lunch with each other, and form relationships, we enable more of these interactions, where teammates help solve each other’s problems from different perspectives.

We have hired many of the best people from the tech and healthcare industries, from many different backgrounds. We want to keep doing that.

Most A-players who share our values do not want to work on a team as the only member of a small minority. Neither do they want to work on a team of only people like themselves.

By recruiting a world-class, diverse team, we are in turn enabling ourselves to recruit more world-class, diverse people. It has a compounding effect.

Many of the most talented people who share our company values of empathy, humility, and putting patients first also enjoy working with teammates with different backgrounds and experiences. We enjoy learning from each other and being open minded, and believe that we learn things from each other that actually make us better at our jobs. We feel that a diverse team makes us happier and more productive, and that the best people who share our values feel this way too.

We are all working at Alto because we care about helping people and care about making the world a better place. It is well-known the tech industry has a massive problem with under-representation. Women are under-represented by a factor of 4, and Black and Latino minorities are under-represented by a factor of 2. Women leave tech at more than twice the rate men do, and women are under-represented in leadership positions in tech by a factor of 10.

A study by the Kapor Institute earlier this year found that the primary reason women and under-represented minorities leave their jobs was due to unfairness in the workplace. At Alto, we value fairness and equality as important moral foundations, and work to promote those values in the workplace. We find it sickening to read over and over again about sexual harassment, stereotyping, and unfair treatment in the tech industry, and we want to do something about it. By actively committing to diversity and inclusion at Alto, we hope to do our small part in helping to change the industry for the better.

This post is all about the “why” when thinking about diversity at Alto, and in the future we will be sharing more about what we are actually doing to make sure that we have a diverse team and inclusive culture. We’ve put a lot of work into diversity and inclusion so far, and made some great progress, but we understand there is always more we can do and this is a challenge that will never be “done.” This post is intended only to lay the foundation for taking initiative to improve diversity here at Alto. Without actual changes this is all just talk.

As a mission-driven healthcare company, there are clearly many important reasons why we care about diversity. It helps us empathize with our patients, innovate on our product, hire the best teammates, and change the tech industry for the better. We are growing quickly, so now is the time to double down on our commitment to having a diverse team. It is not something that happens on its own, and will take a lot of work from all of us to foster the inclusive environment in which a diverse team thrives, but we wholeheartedly believe it will be worth it.

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