Founded in 2021, Picnic Allergy offers allergist-made personalized relief plans designed to treat allergic rhinitis. They tailor plans to each person’s specific symptoms, needs, and treatment history. Designed to be straightforward, convenient, and accessible to all patients, their services provide a streamlined way to purchase medications without the need of waiting in line.
Pros
- Provides both prescription and OTC medications
- Accepts HSA and FSA cards
- “Care team” comprised of licensed physicians and allergists
- Personalized treatment addresses your specific triggers and symptoms
- Home delivery is time-saving and convenient
- Pricing is comparable to drug stores and online retailers
- Introductory offer for new customers: 33% off your first order
Cons
- Targeted at allergic rhinitis–doesn’t treat all forms of allergies
- Does not accept insurance
- No shipping outside of the U.S.
- These and other prescription medications via telehealth are not legal in all states
Bottom Line
If you suffer from environmental, seasonal, or pet allergies like many of us, we highly recommend Picnic, which takes the guesswork out of shopping for effective allergy relief. Picnic provides several additional services, including one-on-one doctor consultations, prescriptions, and advice on coping with specific symptoms. Best of all, Picnic’s pricing is comparable to traditional pharmacies (but doesn’t require an in-person visit).
How does it work?
Picnic’s treatments are specifically focused on allergic rhinitis, which affects more than 20 million adults and can have many triggers, including tree and grass pollen, mold spores, cockroaches, dust mites, and pet dander. Seasonal allergies (like hay fever) are a form of allergic rhinitis triggered by environmental changes at different times of the year.
Picnic’s approach to treating allergic rhinitis includes the use of prescription and OTC medications. To purchase prescription medications, you will need to complete a brief video consultation with a medical professional from Picnic’s Care Team before you can check out. This consultation takes place online via video chat and typically takes 10 minutes. In addition to gathering information about your medical history and allergy symptoms, your physician will advise you on how to take any medication(s) they prescribe and provide additional resources as needed. Consultations are completed within 24 hours when you will then receive an email that you are ready to check out.
All Picnic doctors are licensed in the states where they operate, and they typically complete consultations within a few hours. Note that telehealth services are not currently legal in all areas. If your state prohibits medication prescription from telehealth providers, you can still order OTC products from Picnic
Picnic offers several treatments for allergic rhinitis, including antihistamines, nasal sprays, eye drops, and natural remedies. All Picnic products are generic medications that range from $5 to $58 for a monthly supply. If your prescription requires a doctor’s consultation, the cost is $5 for the consultation fee, which you only need to pay once per year.
As a subscription service, Picnic will auto-refill and ship your medications every one or three months, depending on your preference. Ordering three-month supplies save you significantly more money. For example, we ordered a three-month supply of the prescription drug desloratadine, or generic Clarinex, for $63, which is 30% less than purchasing it in one-month bottles for $30 each.
Trying Picnic for the first time or setting up a subscription is easy and convenient on the company’s website. New customers will need to complete the following steps:
- Complete the quiz. This step is optional but helpful if you’re unsure what treatments you need. On the homepage, click on the prominent “Take the Quiz” link. This brief questionnaire asks about your allergy symptoms and their severity, what seasons trigger you the most and what time(s) of the year, and what treatments you’ve tried in the past and are open to going forward. After you’ve completed the quiz, Picnic presents you with recommended treatments. You can continue to the checkout from here, or you can continue to browse Picnic’s complete product list.
- Browse products. If you’d like to pick and choose your medications rather than completing the quiz, you can click the “Shop All” link at the top of the homepage to add individual products to your cart. Note that all prescription-grade medications will require a brief online consultation with a licensed medical professional from Picnic’s Care Team, which costs a $5 one-time annual fee. Not all states have legalized and regulated telehealth prescriptions, but if consultation is unavailable in your area, you can still order OTC medications from Picnic.
- Checkout. Complete the form with your shipping address and payment information. Picnic accepts major credit cards as well as debit cards associated with HSA and FSA. Upon placing your order, you agree to sign up for a Picnic subscription, and your credit card will be charged upon each subscription shipment, should you opt to get your medications auto-shipped every 1 or 3 months. You can cancel or modify your subscription at any time by contacting customer support.
- Complete a doctor consultation (if necessary). If Picnic has recommended a prescription-grade medication, you’ll need to complete a brief (usually 10-minute) online doctor consultation to obtain a prescription and complete your order. The annual fee required for prescription medications and consultations is $5.
- Await shipment. Once you’ve placed your order, it will ship in 1-2 business days. It should then arrive in 3-5 business days.
- Assess your satisfaction. Start using your treatments as prescribed, and adjust your subscriptions as needed (you can cancel, switch medications, or change your automatic delivery frequency to either every 1 or 3 months at any time except when an order is in the process). Although Picnic legally cannot accept returns of individually packaged medications, even if unopened, the company will replace items if they are defective or damaged. Contact Picnic’s customer service team for assistance at help@picnicallergy.com. You can also use this contact to modify, adjust, or terminate your subscription.
At Innerbody Research, we customize our evaluation criteria depending on the type and nature of the health-related service or product. For Picnic and other health companies, we have five areas that we use for our evaluations, including:
Quality: How well does the company deliver its core service(s) to the customer? For testing services, does the company adhere to the latest and most advanced testing technologies and achieve a very high degree of accuracy? For non-testing telehealth services, is the quality of the service high enough that we would recommend it to loved ones without hesitation? If not, why not?
User-friendly: How intuitive and user-friendly is the service? Does the device, program, app, or website achieve a good degree of user-friendliness for its customers?
Value: Are you getting your money’s worth? Are there any hidden costs or charges? Does the company offer discounts
Privacy: If health data is stored, will your data be stored securely? Are payments secure?
Customer support: Particularly in situations where ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t make sense, how well does the company help to make the service ideal for you?