Mark Cuban
Photo: Mark Cuban Companies website
Humana and Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs are discussing ways to partner to lower the cost of prescription drugs for U.S. employers, according to Humana CEO Jim Rechtin.
Rechtin was speaking with Cuban, the founder of Cost Plus Drugs, on a panel at the annual Forbes Healthcare Summit held Thursday at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
The two said they were working together on ways to improve patient experience at the pharmacy. No specific details were disclosed.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Cuban said he sees the initiative moving forward through a direct-to-employer program that bypasses traditional PBMs, according to Forbes. The partnership would be with CenterWell, Humana's healthcare services business, that includes a specialty pharmacy.
Cuban recently sat down with Scripta Insights cofounder and CEO Eric Levin and spoke about how his company would work with TrumpRx.
"[MCCPDC has] an API that has our entire price list. It's updated every day. We'll give that to them, and they get to post all of our prices," Cuban said.
THE LARGER TREND
Cuban helped launch Cost Plus Drugs in 2022 with the mission to cut out the middleman and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
The online pharmacy offers transparent pricing for more than 1,000 generic drugs. Direct-to-consumer prices are based on the cost, a 15% markup, $3 pharmacy fee and $5 for shipping according to NBC News.
Cuban forms partnerships that gain consumers for Cost Plus Drugs and offers lower prices. In 2023, the company partnered with PharmcoRx Pharmacy in Florida, and tech-enabled Expion Health.
PharmcoRx became a participating pharmacy in MCCPDC's Team Cuban Card, which allows patients at PharmcoRx locations access to generic and brand-name medications at MCCPDC prices.
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org