Frequently Asked Questions

Photon Health is a prescription network that connects clinicians, health systems, and digital health companies to pharmacies, with price transparency and pharmacy choice built in for patients. Clinicians prescribe through Photon via EHR integrations or API. Photon routes the prescription, handles fulfillment exceptions, and reroutes automatically, without clinical staff involvement.

Traditional e-prescribing locks a prescription to a single default pharmacy chosen by the EHR, with no visibility into price or availability and no way for the patient to change things. Photon's network routes with real-time pricing and availability data, and if something goes wrong (out of stock, pharmacy closed, and so on) the patient reroutes themselves instead of calling the practice back.

Retail, mail-order, and specialty pharmacies are all available for patient selection within Photon's network. Photon has direct integrations with Amazon Pharmacy, Walgreens, LilyDirect, Gogo, Carepoint, Strive, Honeybee, curexa, and others.

No. Photon's network does not support the transmission of controlled substance prescriptions.

Photon has routed over 1 million prescriptions to date.

Yes, Photon is HIPAA compliant. Photon signs a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with all covered entities and business associates, and maintains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for PHI.

Photon natively integrates with Epic, athenahealth, ModMed, Elation Health, Healthie, and DrChrono, so prescribers keep their existing workflow. Photon delivers the prescription to patients via SMS without clinicians leaving their EHR.

No. Providers send prescriptions exactly as they always have, and Photon takes over from there to manage the patient-facing pharmacy experience and fulfillment issues.

Photon empowers patients to solve fulfillment problems themselves. When a prescription hits a snag (out of stock, pharmacy closed, a delay, and so on), Photon notifies the patient directly and lets them reroute without contacting the care team, cutting a major source of inbound calls and staff time.

Yes. Photon surfaces your health system pharmacy as an option, with delivery, pricing, and fulfillment visibility. This helps the pharmacy compete on transparency for volume that would otherwise go elsewhere.

Yes. Speed of fulfillment and pharmacy availability matter most in urgent care, and that is exactly what Photon optimizes for.

Integrating Photon into your health system workflow is simple and quick. There are two environments: Neutron, for building and testing, and Photon, for production. Moving from one to the other is as simple as swapping API keys. Create a developer account to start onboarding for free and to access the Prescribe App and APIs. The whole process takes about five minutes.

Photon maintains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect customer data, and the FDB Vela integration adds a HITRUST-certified, cloud-native architecture with full redundancy and 24/7 availability for prescription transmissions.

Yes. Photon offers developer-friendly APIs and embeddable UI components (Photon Elements) for custom clinical applications. Prescribing can be reduced to as few as two clicks without leaving your platform.

Patient management, prescription creation, order routing, pharmacy search, fulfillment status tracking, and webhook-based updates for real-time order state changes are all supported through a GraphQL API. A sandbox environment called Neutron is available for development and testing.

Integrating Photon into your tech-enabled care workflow is quick. In fact, it only takes about five minutes to get set up with our sandbox environment, Neutron. When you create a developer account, you'll begin the free onboarding process and gain access to the Prescribe App and APIs. You'll be ready to prescribe through the Prescribe App in about five minutes. Full integration with elements/API takes a few hours; however, if you hit any snags you can always reach out to us.

Yes. Photon has direct integrations with mail-order pharmacy partners, so prescriptions route automatically without manual form submissions.

Yes. Photon's order integration layer supports custom routing rules for preferred pharmacy partners, mail-order versus retail, and specialty routing.

Yes. Photon routes specialty prescriptions and proactively notifies patients about insurance requirements or delays for branded medications like GLP-1s.

Measured cut operational costs 30% after integrating Photon, eliminating 40 hours a week of manual mail-order submissions and simplifying provider prescribing to two clicks.

Yes. Neutron mirrors production exactly except for live pharmacy transmission. Use it to test prescribing workflows, configure API keys and webhooks, and set up organization settings before going live.

You write the prescription through your normal EHR or clinical workflow, and Photon takes it from there by texting the patient a secure link to select their pharmacy. There is no pharmacy selection or fulfillment follow-up on your end.

No. You prescribe exactly as you do today. Photon handles everything after the prescription leaves your hands.

Yes. Patients reroute, check status, and resolve common issues (out of stock, wrong pharmacy, delays) on their own, so care teams spend far less time troubleshooting after visits.

Yes. Photon gives your team visibility into medication status across your patient panel so staff can track fulfillment without calling the pharmacy.

Photon integrates with Epic, athenahealth, ModMed, Elation, Healthie, and DrChrono, and can integrate with most other EHRs. If you are on a different platform, reach out and we will help.

No. Photon does not support the transmission of controlled substance prescriptions.

Photon shows patients relevant pharmacy options at the exact moment they are deciding where to fill a prescription, letting them compare price, availability, and fulfillment time before choosing. Transparency becomes a direct driver of volume. If you are a pharmacy administrator interested in adding more transparency to your listings, get in touch.

Through your existing prescription intake infrastructure, with no new hardware or dispensing software required. When a patient selects your pharmacy, the prescription transmits electronically through the Photon network or through a network partner like FDB Vela. If electronic transmission is not available, Photon will eFax the prescription along with a digital copy accessible via a secure link. If you are interested in integrating directly, get in touch.

Yes. If you are a retail, mail-order, home delivery, or specialty pharmacy, you are eligible to integrate with the Photon network and surface transparent information to patients. Current partners include Amazon Pharmacy, Walgreens, LilyDirect, Gogo, Carepoint, Strive, Honeybee, curexa, and others.

If you are a retail pharmacy listed in the NCPDP directory, you are already shown as a pharmacy option to patients in the Photon network. If you are a mail-order, home delivery, or specialty pharmacy not currently listed and you are interested in joining, get in touch.

Integrating is straightforward, because Photon is built to route prescriptions anywhere. If you are interested in native eRX integration, reach out directly.

Distance, pharmacy hours, estimated fulfillment time, and medication pricing where available. Pharmacies that integrate real-time inventory status and ready-by times build more patient confidence and are selected more often.

Yes. Pharmacies that integrate real-time stock status and dynamic fulfillment estimates give patients the clearest picture of their options, and they see higher selection rates as a result. Amazon Pharmacy's integration, for example, surfaces real-time stock status and dynamic delivery estimates based on the patient's address and medication directly in its pharmacy listing.

We're here to help. Reach out to us directly for more details about integration, partnership agreements, and anything else you might need as you're getting started on your Photon journey.

Photon puts relevant pharmacy options, based on location, in front of patients with no prior loyalty required. Because patients choose based on price, availability, and convenience rather than a default selected during intake, pharmacies that compete well on those dimensions capture volume they would otherwise never see. Pharmacies looking to maximize patient awareness can also pay for a limited number of marketing placements in the marketplace.

No. Photon does not charge pharmacies for participation in the network or for direct electronic prescription integrations. Pharmacies that want to reach more patients can pay for a limited number of sponsored placements in the marketplace. If you are interested in learning more, get in touch.

If a prescription hits a problem at the pharmacy (out of stock, closed, delayed), Photon notifies the patient and lets them reroute without involving their provider. Pharmacies end up with prescriptions from patients who actively chose them, which means fewer abandoned fills and less wasted inventory.

Your doctor used Photon to send your prescription digitally. The text has a secure link where you can see your prescription, compare nearby pharmacies by price and availability, and choose where to pick up your medication.

Yes. If your provider uses Photon, the text is a secure, official way your prescription was delivered. You do not need to call the office or go to a specific pharmacy.

Open the secure link in your text. You will see nearby pharmacies with pricing, availability, and estimated ready times. Pick the one you prefer and your prescription goes there.

Yes. Photon shows real-time pricing at nearby pharmacies before your prescription is sent, so there are no surprises at the counter.

You will get an update, and you can use your secure Photon link to reroute your prescription to a different pharmacy. No call to your doctor needed.

Yes. Depending on what your provider has set up, you can choose from retail pharmacies near you or mail-order for home delivery.

Yes. Photon is HIPAA compliant and uses encryption and secure access controls to protect your health information. Your prescription is held securely until you select a pharmacy.

Photon offers anytime text support for help navigating your prescription or pharmacy options. Reach out 24/7, seven days a week, whenever you need assistance.

No. Photon does not cost patients anything. Your care provider uses it to improve your experience.

You may be able to in some cases. Photon lists out-of-pocket costs for all pharmacies in the network. We add insurance costs if that information is passed along from the prescriber or added by you. Our goal is for you to see exactly how much a prescription will cost you, every time.