Walgreens and RxSense partner on a tool for lower drug prices

The Rx Savings Finder marketplace has already saved patients almost $70 million

Consumers nationwide struggle with the cost of prescription drugs: Americans spend $1300 annually on their medications, more than any other country in the world, while as many as 18 million Americans unable to afford their medications at all. 

That's why RxSense, a business intelligence solution for the pharmacy industry, announced a partnership with Walgreens on Thursday to launch Rx Savings Finder, a new digital marketplace for consumers to shop for lower prices available through prescription discount card services at Walgreens pharmacies around the country.

The idea is to bring financial relief to help people with access to and adherence of their medications, Rick Bates, founder & CEO of RxSense, told VatorNews. 

"Walgreens’ Rx Savings Finder caters to any consumer that has to fill a prescription and may find a lower price when paying cash. Given the growing number of underinsured consumers  – now nearly 60% of U.S. workers are on high deductible health plans, in addition to the 18 million Americans that are uninsured – these discount cards provide meaningful savings, up to 80% off the retail cost of the drugs," he said.

The Rx Savings Finder tool is free to use and there’s no sign-up required: consumers just go to the site to search for their prescription, choose the lowest price and show it to the Walgreens pharmacy team member on their phone, or they can text, email or print the coupon.

RxSense and Walgreens developed the marketplace product in both English and Spanish, while also making it ADA compliant. Also, in order to avoid friction at the pharmacy, RxSense's API integrations with the participating partners provides prescription discount prices in real-time. The tool is now available at Walgreens pharmacies nationwide; in addition to accessing the tool directly, it's also integrated into Walgreens’ digital refill experience on web and mobile app. 

The two companies have had a long-standing relationship, Bates explained, and this new tool came about after RxSense was invited to participate in a nearly year long pilot program with Walgreens, where they worked closely with Walgreens throughout the entire process of building the marketplace, partnering on many different iterations until they felt that it delivered the simplest and best consumer experience.

"The Rx Savings Finder is poised to be an overwhelming success, as Walgreens has shared that this new tool has already saved patients almost $70 million," Bates said.

In addition to Rx Savings Finder, the Boston-based RxSense also offers a prescription savings service, called SingleCare, which helps consumers save up to 80% on their medications, as well as enterprise solutions for pharmacy benefits and prescription savings that provide healthcare entities with technology to take control of their own pharmacy benefits, including providing transparency on cost and performance through access to real-time data and analytics, something that sets it apart from legacy systems, according to Bates.

With this new partnership with Walgreens and the Rx Savings Finder tool, RxSense is  emphasizing its vision, which is to bring technology and healthcare products to help deliver lower costs to partners and consumers, he said.

"To us, success means that more Americans are able to access affordable prescription medications and Walgreens has deployed another solution to meet the needs of their customers."

(Image source: walgreens.com)