GoodRx Unveils New Tool to Check Patient Coverage

GoodRx says it wants to offer health professionals greater insights into their patients’ insurance coverage.

The digital prescription platform on Wednesday (Aug. 30) announced the debut of “real-time benefit check” for its Provider Mode tool.

Created in partnership with AssistRx, the therapy initiation and patient solutions provider, real-time benefit check offers healthcare professionals immediate access to eligible patients’ insurance coverage and more visibility into the cost of brand and specialty prescriptions.

“Compiling prescription insurance pricing information and affordability solutions such as coupons and manufacturer savings has been a significant pain point for providers,” Preeti Parikh, MD, executive medical director of GoodRx, said in a news release.

“It is time-consuming, and since the information is so fragmented, we often can’t get a holistic view of pricing despite our best efforts,” Parikh said. “We are confident that healthcare professionals will appreciate both the transparency and the efficiency that real-time benefit check provides to see all affordability options in one place.”

Earlier this month, PYMNTS reported that GoodRX was seeing success as it focuses on building relationships with retail pharmacies and finding ways to help them manage their pricing margins and reach growth targets.

The company added one grocer pharmacy in the last quarter, and it plans to continue the trend in the second half of the year, as it is “finding retail pharmacies see incredible value in the GoodRx brand,” interim CEO Scott Wagner said on a recent earnings call.

“We’re in the process of working through these contracts retailer by retailer and plan to continue to do so throughout the second half of the year,” Wagner said during the call. “We believe that we’re creating the foundation for long-term growth for GoodRx that adds value to both retailers and [pharmacy benefit manager (PBM)] partners alike.”

These efforts are happening as brick-and-mortar pharmacies are experiencing increases in digital engagement this year, per a recent J.D. Power report.

That report, as noted here last month, showed that 81% of customers say they use digital technology to interact with their pharmacy, up from 76% last year. For customers who use mail-order pharmacies, that number went from 84% to 89%.

The report found that “the idea of the neighborhood pharmacist as an essential member of the community is alive and well. Overall satisfaction is 102 points higher among customers who say they know their pharmacist by name, and 93 points higher among those who say they know pharmacy staff or technicians by name.”