It may come as a surprise to many people that we’ve rated Kmart this highly among pharmacy services but they’ve earned their place. The mass merchandiser that has been plagued with financial difficulties offers an online pharmacy service that compares well to others in most regards. With some attention to consumer health education features and some minor adjustments to their prescription ordering process, they could rank even higher.
New Prescriptions
The key to ordering a prescription medication from the Kmart pharmacy online is to register an account. Parents can add their children’s prescription information to their account to manage them easily as well. To make the best use of their service, taking the extra step of subscribing to My Prescription Profile is a good idea but not mandatory. The program has the advantages of allowing for online viewing of a prescription history and speeds the ordering process. In order to sign up for this optional part of the service, you must have at least one existing prescription with Kmart pharmacy.
Kmart places some restrictions on the submission of new prescription requests online. Customers are admonished only to submit such requests if their doctor has already agreed to authorize a new prescription, the customer wants the Kmart pharmacy to contact the doctor for confirmation and that a written prescription has not already been issued. These are, frankly, perfectly reasonable restrictions but it does take away the option of mailing in a paper prescription if it’s available, a service that our top rated pharmacies provide. If a customer does meet the above conditions, submitting the request is an easy matter of entering the physician’s name and telephone number, the drug name or purpose for the medication and the quantity requested. It’s also necessary to select the Kmart pharmacy location at which the medication will be picked up since a delivery option isn’t available.
Prescription Refills
Requesting a prescription refill online through the Kmart pharmacy is about as easy as it can be. After logging into your account, you just have to enter the prescription number and the name of the person to whom the medication is prescribed. This is required because of the feature that allows parents to register the children on the same account. A handy feature of the service is that it allows the customer to check a box asking the pharmacy to call the physician to renew a prescription if it has expired or there are no more refills available. As with new prescriptions, it’s necessary to select the pick-up location. There’s an option to pick up the prescription the next business day or as soon as possible, which typically makes an order available within about an hour.
Prescription Transfers
Transferring prescriptions from another pharmacy is also very easy. It requires just the entry of some identifying information and data regarding the medication, the pharmacy that currently holds the prescription and the prescriber.
As one of the country’s mass merchandisers, no one is likely to be surprised that Kmart offers a wide selection of vitamins and minerals and other nutritional supplements. Similarly, people generally will be aware of that they stock many over-the-counter medications for coughs and colds, allergies, stomach and intestinal ailments and lots more.
We think that people are more likely to be impressed by the selection of medical equipment and specialized care products that are available. There’s a good selection of mobility products from wheelchairs, scooters and power chairs to ramps and lift appliances. There are products to enhance safety around the house and bath as well as all sorts of braces, supports and health monitoring instruments. In short, Kmart, online in particular, is likely to be a better source for a wider variety of health support products than most folks ever imagined.
The Kmart pharmacy website offers some basic health advice and guidance regarding weight control and exercise, the value of regular medical check-ups as well as a bit of more specific information for heart health and diabetes. There’s even an Ask a Pharmacist feature but you must be logged into My Prescription Profile to take advantage of it. Beyond that, the health education feature of Kmart’s is disappointing compared to the top rated pharmacies in our review.
Ordering prescription medications from Kmart pharmacy is not notably different than other pharmacies that we’ve rated. Finding products on the website is easy due to good organization and headings.
Automatic refill of maintenance medications is available. When enrolled in the Auto Refill Program, the Kmart pharmacy will refill eligible prescriptions before they run out and notify you when they’re ready for pickup. There’s also the option of having them delivered to your home.
The Kmart Pharmacy Prescription Savings Club offers discounts on many medications. The annual cost is $10.00 per household. With the program you can get a 30-day supply of many generic medications for $5.00 or a 90-day supply for up to $15.00. Other generic medications are discounted 5-35% and brand-name meds can get a 5-20% reduction in cost. You even get a coupon for a $10.00 gift certificate when you sign up for the plan so that pretty much makes up for the cost.
Customer support on Kmart’s website includes both telephone and email access but is for Kmart generally and not specifically for the pharmacy. For pharmacy help, it’s best to use the store locator and call a local Kmart pharmacy.
Kmart offers a good online pharmacy program that only needs minor improvements to be among the best.
