Walgreens app on left, CVS app on right
A 2012 Deloitte survey of 613 U.S. primary care and specialist physicians selected from the American Medical Association found that 19 percent of health care providers offer their patients a web-based program to refill prescriptions online. While some retail pharmacies have been offering apps with prescription refill features for a few years, others have only recently added these offerings.
This February, Walgreens introduced an API that allows mobile developers to integrate Walgreens' prescription refill technology with a different app. While a regular customer at Walgreens might already be content with the store's mobile app offerings, someone else might prefer the refill technology added to an app he or she is already using. The nature of a pharmacy refill app is medical, but patients weave it into their daily routines.
In the U.S., going to the pharmacy almost always involves a supermarkets and convenience store experience, and that is reflected in their apps. Even the CVS Pharmacy app, as well as the others featured below, isn't featured in Apple's App Store Medical or Health & Fitness categories. Instead, you can find these apps in Lifestyle and Food sections. It incorporates rewards points, a photo center and other one-stop-shop offers to create an app that will fill your prescription, but also lead you to the best deal in the dairy aisle. The apps below all include at least a pill refill option, while some chart health trends and offer reminders. Read through our roundup below.
CVS Pharmacy 
CVS Pharmacy offers a photo center; QR scanner for product prices; tab to see the latest deals; photo center and prescription section. This app offers a range of options for customers looking to deal with prescriptions. This app offers a range of prescription functions, such as the pill scanner, minute clinic and refill prescription. The app also offers a pill identifier to help identify pills based on imprint, shape and color information. The app keeps tabs of prescription history and offers non-health services, such as the ability to link a rewards and savings account to the app and the option to order photos. In 2010, CVS Caremark launched an iPhone app that allows CVS Caremark PBM (pharmacy benefits manager) members can refill prescriptions, check drug costs and find a pharmacy nearby. This year, CVS added an iPad app that is designed to look like a virtual pharmacy, where each section of the store corresponds to a functionality for the app, many of which are already present on the iPhone app. To download the CVS Pharmacy iPhone app, the user must be at least 17 years old.
Walgreens 
In addition to its health related features, Walgreens' app has a floor map of the store to help shoppers navigate, a photo printing center, an update on rewards points and weekly coupons. Walgreens' app offers a health info tab allows users to access health reference information and track weight loss, BMI, ovulation and other health-related lifestyle choices. Additionally, Walgreens offers refills, pill reminders, refill reminders and prescription transfers. Additionally, as a rewards member, every refill allots the user with a certain number of rewards points. Just last year, Walgreens added the option for pill reminders and Rx transfers. This year, Walgreens reported on the success of its mobile app in drawing engaged customers to the store -- they spend significantly more.
Rite Aid 
From the Rite Aid app, a user can check the weekly circular for deals, locate the closest store, process photos and use a QR scanner to check prices. Rite Aid's pharmacy tab within its app allows customers the option to refill or transfer a prescription. It also keeps the user's prescription history in case the patient can't remember the Rx number or scan. There's also an option to enroll in a service from which a patient can manage the Rx reminders and receive iPhone notifications when the prescription is due for a refill or ready to pickup.
Wegmans 
Wegmans' app offers a product search, the option to sync a rewards card, different recipes and a shopping list so that a trip to Wegmans is as efficient as possible. Although the Wegmans app doesn't have a prominent tab for pharmacy needs, nor is the app's main function angled for anything other than purchasing food, the app offers prescription refills for customers that use the Wegmans pharmacy.
Target 
The Target app, while only offering the basic necessities in prescription app offerings -- tracking and refilling an existing prescription -- compiles a plethora of other Target offerings including a store finder, wedding registry, coupons, grocery reminders and other Target shopping necessities.
Duane Reade 
Duane Reade has a scanner to check prices, a tab to keep updated on rewards and a photo center. A subsidiary of Walgreens, Duane Reade offers a store locator that will find the closest Walgreens or Duane Reade. The pharmacy features include a refill by scan or refill reminder and the rewards program attached to Duane Reade for using the prescription program gives you the same points you get with Walgreens.
