Planned Parenthood App Helps Deliver Birth Control, UTI Medication

DENVER (CBS4)– A new app by Planned Parenthood allows women to get birth control delivered to their door. The app also helps deliver treatment for urinary tract infections.

“They can be sitting in their living room, they can be in their car on their lunch break,” said Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Medical Director, Dr. Kristina Tocce.

Like an office evaluation, she said, the app walks women through a set of questions. The women submit their answers and a Planned Parenthood provider responds within 24 hours.

“When people have barriers to health care, they often have to delay care or forgo care altogether and so the more we can meet patients where they are, the healthier patients are going to be,” said Tocce.

Dana Gutwein said it makes life easier for busy moms like her. She has two kids, two dogs and works inside and outside the home.

“It feels like every day is just a total scramble rush from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed,” said Gutwein.

Squeezing in time to go to the doctor for a birth control prescription, she said, is difficult, “For each appointment, it’s time away from work or getting a babysitter. I would love to just be able to do that in a faster easier way because I’ve got to have it.”

Now, she can. There’s an app for that.

“It seems like such a small thing but it’s going to make a big difference for me and many other women in Colorado.”

The app is called Planned Parenthood Direct. While it is free to download, if you need an evaluation for a urinary tract infection, it’s $15 and you have to be 18 years old. Birth control costs $25 for a one-month supply and you have to be at least 15 years old.

Tocce said it’s more important now than ever, “In this time when we’re really facing a serious threat in terms of reproductive health access, we’re able to improve the access for our patients.”