GoodRx has launched a new feature to allow healthcare professionals to see the cost of a patient’s prescription with their insurance.
The real-time benefit check (RTBC) feature was developed in collaboration with AssistRx, a specialty therapy initiation and patient solutions provider. The RTBC surfaces a patient’s coverage and benefits at the point of care with the goal of increasing price transparency and access to drugs. It also includes whether a prior authorization is required.
AssistRx built its advanced access and patient support solutions to be interoperable, Edward Hensley, the company’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, said in a press release.
“Partnering with GoodRx expands our reach, enabling us to provide more offices with the real-time patient and product-specific benefit information needed to improve price transparency and informed access,” he said.
GoodRx’s solution for providers, called Provider Mode, launched in 2022 and offers price comparison features that allow providers to see the cost of a drug with GoodRx or with a manufacturer’s savings program—now with the addition of a patient's insurance. The RTBC is embedded in Provider Mode, which more than 550,000 healthcare professionals have used to date.
Since the launch of Provider Mode, seamless access to insurance copay information has been the most requested feature by providers, according to GoodRx. Compiling benefits and affordability solutions has been a notable “pain point” for providers, Preeti Parikh, M.D., executive medical director of GoodRx, said in an announcement.
“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,” he said in a press release.
Since launch, GoodRx has seen an overwhelmingly positive response to Provider Mode, according to Akeel Williams, general manager of GoodRx Provider Mode. The RTBC is designed to make brand-name drugs more accessible by connecting providers and manufacturers.
“Being able to go to one place … that place not being at the pharmacy when it’s sometimes too late to change that decision, really gives you that apples-to-apples-to-apples view,” Williams told Fierce Healthcare.
RTBC is meant to be easy and seamless for providers to use. After they log into Provider Mode, which can be accessed through the web on any device, they can check a patient’s insurance coverage with a few key details including patient name, date of birth, gender and ZIP code. The solution includes cost comparison tools, GoodRx coupons, customized news feeds, enrollment forms for specialty hubs and brand drug savings options that GoodRx says are not available in traditional EHRs.
By embedding enrollment forms for savings programs within Provider Mode, GoodRx aims to minimize the amount of time providers have to spend searching for the forms on individual websites.
Another key feature of Provider Mode is that healthcare professionals can share available GoodRx savings with their patients using a QR code without having to share a personal email address or phone number.
The RTBC has the potential to deliver significant value to GoodRx’s manufacturer partners, the company says. Through Provider Mode, they can help raise awareness of medication access solutions with providers looking for brand and specialty drugs on GoodRx. By surfacing whether a patient is eligible for a copay card or savings program at the point of prescription, RTBC delivers more transparency in the prescribing workflow, the company said.
Provider Mode is still growing at a rate of tens of thousands of new activations each month, Williams told Fierce Healthcare. GoodRx advertises the solution through a variety of channels including mail, email and social media as well as through reps that go to doctors' offices in person.