Blink Health Pharmacy Review in 2023

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Online pharmacies can offer discounted prescriptions delivered to your doorstep or sent to your local pharmacy for pickup, but it may not be safe to get prescription medications from just any website online. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has identified more than 40,000 websites that sell prescription medication illegally.

Blink Health is an NABP-certified safe online pharmacy, meaning it meets the standards of patient safety, pharmacy practice standards, and state laws. The company offers discounted out-of-pocket prices on generic medications, and customers can use their insurance to get brand-name medications as well.

We reviewed Blink Health, compared the costs of popular medications across its services, and mystery shopped the online pharmacy to see how easy it was to use the platform.

Pros

• Offers online consultations for new prescriptions
• Offers a price-match guarantee
• Prescription delivery available in all 50 states

Cons

• Can’t use insurance for generic medications
• Online consultation availability varies by condition, age, and location
• No express delivery option

Blink Health works with prescription medication manufacturers to provide a discounted out-of-pocket price for its users. The company divides its services into two categories: Blink Health is for people looking for low-cost generic medications, and BlinkRx is for people looking for brand-name specialty medications. According to University of Michigan Health, specialty medications are drugs that require special handling, administration, or monitoring.

You cannot use insurance for generic medications, but you can use insurance for brand-name specialty medications.

The platform has an auto-refill option for those who want to receive regular deliveries of their prescription refills, possibly at a lower cost than what their insurance company's mail-order pharmacy charges.

Users can then choose to have their medication delivered to their home for free or pick it up from a local partner pharmacy. There are some medications that aren’t eligible for delivery, like controlled substances. Medications considered controlled substances, like alprazolam (Xanax), can only be picked up at a local pharmacy.

How does local pickup work?

If you choose to pick up your medication instead of waiting the standard four to six business days for delivery, you can pick it up from one of over 35,000 pharmacies Blink Health partners with, such as Walmart, Costco, and Albertsons.

If you choose to pick up your prescription, you need to pay online in advance. Once you pay, you will receive a "Blink card," which you can either print from the confirmation page or access via the text or email Blink sends you. You will then need to show your Blink card to the pharmacist at the pickup counter.

BlinkRx for Specialty Drugs

BlinkRx analyzes the cost of your brand-name specialty drugs to see if it is cheaper to use your insurance or pay the Blink price, which includes any available manufacturer discounts.

You can use the Blink Health website to search for your medication. Each medication listing will indicate whether there is an option to use BlinkRx.

Our reviews team discovered that BlinkRx is not in-network with all insurance plans, despite its website stating that it accepts insurance for all patients. Contact your insurance provider to see if it covers prescriptions from BlinkRx.

To get your medications delivered to your home with Blink Health, have your prescription or your doctor’s office phone number ready, and follow these steps:

1. On BlinkHealth.com, search for your medication as it’s written on your prescription.
2. Select the form, dosage, and quantity of medication as it’s written on your prescription.
3. Choose between home delivery and pharmacy pickup, and add your medication to your online shopping cart.
4. Add any other prescriptions you’re looking to fill, and proceed to checkout.
5. Create an account and add your personal information and delivery address.
6. Add your payment information and indicate whether you want your prescription automatically refilled.
7. Ask your healthcare provider to send your prescription to Blink Health for prescription verification.
8. If you selected home delivery, you can expect your medication to be delivered four to six business days after prescription verification.

You can choose Local Pharmacy Pickup before adding your order to your cart. To pick it up, present your Blink card at the pharmacy counter.

You need a current prescription to be able to get your medications through Blink Health. On its website, Blink Health has a page that details how healthcare providers should send their patients' prescriptions, which they can do electronically, by phone, or by fax.

If you have questions about your prescription, you can get in touch with a pharmacist through Blink Health by phone (844-265-6444). Users with a subscription can consult with a doctor anytime via a messaging portal on the platform.

How do online consultations work?

If you don’t have a current prescription, you may be able to get one from Blink Health via an online consultation. Blink Health offers online consultations for new prescriptions and for refills of certain medications. Eligibility for online consultations varies by age, state, and condition. The following conditions are eligible for online consultations:

• Erectile dysfunction
• Birth control
• Hair loss
• Cold sores
• High cholesterol
• Acid reflux

You can indicate that you need an online consultation for your prescription during checkout. There is no appointment required. You'll complete a health and medical history assessment, which a board-certified clinician will review within 24 hours to determine whether you are eligible for a prescription. For residents of some states, Blink Health may require a phone call or live chat in addition to the assessment before you can get a prescription. In those instances, Blink Health will work with you to set up a live online appointment with a prescriber.

The cost that you pay for your prescription on Blink Health can depend on whether you choose to pick up your medication or have it delivered to your home. Generally, the cost of home delivery is more affordable than the cost of local pickup through the platform.

If you’re ordering a specialty brand-name drug, you can choose between using your insurance or paying the price negotiated by Blink, which includes any available manufacturer discounts.

Blink Health has a price match guarantee for generic medications. If you find a lower price from a competitor after placing your order, you can submit a claim within 28 days of your Blink purchase for a refund of the difference.

Blink Health accepts credit cards, debit cards, flexible spending account cards, and health savings account cards.

How Do Subscriptions Work on Blink Health?

For medications that are prescribed through online consultations on the platform, Blink Health offers a subscription that includes unlimited online prescriber consultations and medication delivery for a monthly fee. The subscriptions can be a convenient way to get answers to any questions about your medication or its side effects and have prescriptions adjusted if necessary.

The monthly cost is $10 for the first month, no matter which medication you order. After the first month, the cost is $9.95 plus the cost of the prescription medication. For example, a subscription for a 28-day supply of norgestimate-ethinyl estradiol (Sprintec) will cost a total of $19.90, which accounts for the $9.95 monthly fee plus $9.95 for the medication.

Users can choose between deliveries every 30, 60, or 90 days, and they can pause or cancel their Blink Health subscription anytime through their account settings.

* 30-day supply, home delivery

† 28-day supply

Blink Health is an accredited business by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It has a rating of A+, with five complaints closed in the last 12 months, as of this writing. It has 65 customer reviews with an average rating of 1.53 out of 5 stars. On Trustpilot, Blink Health received a 1.9 out of 5-star rating with 49 reviews. Our reviews team reached out to Blink about its low ratings and will update this piece as we receive a response.

On mobile app stores, Blink Health has a rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars from more than 10,700 reviews on Google Play and 4.5 out of 5 stars from more than 700 reviews on the Apple App Store.

Positive reviews praised the affordability of prescription medications through the platform. Some mentioned a good experience ordering their prescriptions and receiving timely deliveries.

Negative reviews mentioned not being able to reach customer service easily. When we mystery shopped the platform, we had to wait between eight and 30 minutes to speak to a customer service agent about our questions. Others mentioned issues with canceling their subscriptions and unreliable fulfillment of their orders.

We recommend the best platforms and services we believe will serve the needs of our readers. We do this by conducting our own in-depth research into accredited online pharmacy platforms and consulting with health professionals in the industry. Readers can trust what’s behind our recommendations because we:

• Engaged in more than 150 hours of collective research
• Mystery shopped the platforms to understand real user experiences
• Developed an in-house scoring system that considers cost, customer service, professional support, user experience, breadth of services, and unique features that the platforms offer
• Read and considered hundreds of verified customer reviews on trusted third-party review sites such as the BBB and Trustpilot.
• Medically reviewed and fact-checked each review for accuracy

Blink Health is an online pharmacy that provides options for free home delivery or local pickup of generic prescription medications. The company also has a tool called BlinkRx that analyzes insurance benefits to help users decide whether to use their insurance for specialty brand-name prescription medications. Although you have the option to use insurance for brand-name specialty drugs, you cannot use insurance for generic drugs.

Blink Health also offers a monthly subscription for certain medications, which comes with unlimited online prescription consultations and medication delivery. Its low cost for medications, automatic deliveries, and online consultation options can make prescription medications easy to fill and have delivered to your home or local pharmacy without seeing a doctor in person.