Ding-dong —

To rival Amazon, UPS enters healthcare—with doorstep nurse delivery

A test is set to launch this year, but UPS mum on which vaccines it will deliver.

A United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) logo is displayed on the door of a truck
Enlarge / A United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) logo is displayed on the door of a truck

UPS is crossing the threshold into healthcare, with plans for a new service that will deliver vaccine-toting nurses to customers' doorsteps.

A test for the new service is scheduled for later this year, but UPS didn’t name where it will take place or which vaccine it will offer, only saying that it would be an immunization for adults against a viral illness. Vaccine-maker Merck & Co is reportedly considering partnering with UPS on the service.

News of the plan was first reported by Reuters. Ars confirmed the report with UPS, but a UPS spokesperson specifically working on the project did not immediately get back to us. This post will be updated with any additional information we receive.

According to Reuters’ report, UPS’ service will work like this: UPS employees at the shipper’s massive Worldport facility in Louisville, Kentucky will work in a 1.7 million-square-foot healthcare complex to dispatch vaccines in insulated packages. Those packages will then make their way to individual franchised UPS stores. Once there, UPS will have contracted nurses pick up the shots, drive them to customer’s homes, and administer them on the spot.

The test is to see if UPS can “connect all these dots,” Wes Wheeler told Reuters. Wheeler is the chief executive at Marken, UPS’ clinical trial logistics unit, acquired in 2016, that is overseeing the vaccine project.

UPS’ entrance into healthcare follows news and buzz about Amazon’s gate-crashing foray into the industry, which has rattled major healthcare players, including insurance companies and pharmacies. Last year, Amazon purchased the online pharmacy PillPack, which sells presorted medication packets in one-month supplies to customers nationwide. News of the purchase sent shares of Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid plummeting at the time.

But Amazon reportedly uses UPS and FedEx to deliver PillPack orders, lacking specialized medical facilities and temperature-controlled shipping infrastructure of its own. This leaves an opening for UPS and other shippers to get into healthcare logistics.

“Over-the-threshold services is where the world is headed,” Chris Cassidy told Reuters. Cassidy oversee global healthcare logistics strategy at UPS and is a former employee at GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

Still, there will be obstacles to the new plan, including getting insurance companies to cover the home-delivered vaccines and keeping costs low to make the service competitive with other strategies, such as relatively cheap in-pharmacy vaccinations.

Channel Ars Technica