The human arsenal has a lot more to it than we usually acknowledge, and yet it doesn’t boast a feature more valuable than that tendency of ours to grow on a consistent basis. This is because the stated tendency has already fetched us some huge milestones, with technology appearing as a major member of the group. The main reason why technology enjoys such an esteemed stature among people revolves around its skill-set, which ushered us towards a reality nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, a slightly closer look would reveal how the whole runner was also very much inspired by the way we applied those skills across a real-world environment. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, including a timely appearance on our healthcare block. Technology’s foray into healthcare was so perfect with its timing, as it came right when the sector was beginning to struggle against its own obsolete structure. This reality, fortunately for us, went through a complete overhaul under the new regime, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, the new and budding concept will somehow keep on producing all the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident over the recent past, and truth be told, a new development around the pharmaceutical space should only make that trend bigger and moving forward.
Cost Plus Drug, a Dallas based pharmtech player owned by Mark Cuban, has officially teamed up with EmsanaRx to launch a new product in EmsanaRx Plus, which is designed to give self-funded employers an access to low-cost prescription medications. Assuming everything goes according to the plan, this will be the first time that Cost Plus Drug will offer its services outside of direct-to-consumer market. But why did it pick EmsanaRx? Well, based in Louisville, EmsanaRx happens to be the only pharmacy benefits manager that is built by employers specifically for all their counterparts, and therefore, it offers a readymade framework to improve the employer-based prescription benefit coverage. You see, employee members, in order to avail the benefits of their health plan, are forced to spend money on medications that doesn’t apply to their health plan deductible or maximum out-of-pocket costs. EmsanaRx Plus solves the stated problem by providing deep discounts on medications without employees having to go outside of their health plan benefits to realize those savings.
“Employers are increasingly recognizing that they’re being held hostage by a consolidated industry playing games that cost them more every year without adding value,” said Greg Baker, CEO of EmsanaRx. “In partnering with Cost Plus Drugs, we will help employers understand where high-cost drugs are a problem in their current benefit design and give them and their employees access to lower-cost alternatives.”
Launched in January 2022, Cost Plus Drug has enjoyed somewhat of a quick rise to the top, and it has done so with the help of an outright transparent approach. The company, in line with its selling pitch, charges a standard 15% markup on every drug it sells. Such a method suddenly makes these drugs a lot more affordable, thus ensuring improved healthcare prospects for a larger section of the population out there. At the moment, Cost Plus Drug has over 1,000 prescription products on its platform, but this number should be expected to grow significantly in the near future.
When quizzed regarding the new partnership with EmsanaRx, the owner Mark Cuban said:
“Like Cost Plus Drugs, EmsanaRx is working to disrupt the current pharmacy supply chain to eliminate the unnecessary markup and profiteering that is burdening businesses and consumers with high drug costs,” said Mark Cuban. “By partnering with a company as committed to transparency as Cost Plus Drugs, and with the technological capabilities to customize to the needs of self-funded employers, we are able to bring lower cost medicines to a wider swath of the American public.”
