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RxREVU, a prescription drug database startup, has just raised $1 million in additional funding. The company uses its vast pool of information on prescription drug prices and prescription drug effectiveness to make cost savings recommendations to patients. RxREVU claims to save patients between $500 and $3,000 per year, per medication optimization.
Prescription drug pricing is notorious for being inflexible and opaque. To combat such problems, RxREVU claims their recommendations give patients a better understanding of what their treatment options are, the cost of those treatments and what the trade-offs are between different medications. The company’s dataset contains over 2000 cost saving recommendations.
"Cost has been shown to be a major contributor to patients not taking their medication," said Kevin O'Brien, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of RxREVU, in a statement. "Identifying cost-saving opportunities will improve clinical outcomes through the decreased risk of medication nonadherence. As high-cost specialty drugs become a larger part of healthcare's future, the value RxREVU provides becomes increasingly important to all healthcare stakeholders."
RxREVU uses a number of methods for saving money on prescription druges including using therapeutic alternatives, splitting combination drugs, dividing high doses, generic substitutions, pill splitting, over the counter substitutions, and quantity discounts.
A number of factors are driving interest in cheaper prescription drugs. The rising cost of healthcare up until recently has not directed been understood by patients as a consequence of their healthcare decisions, because so many patients have been insulated from the true price of healthcare via health insurance. But now because the Affordable Care Act has helped to create a whole new class of high-deductible health insurance plans, which are shifting the immediate burden of healthcare costs to patients, patients are now thinking much more carefully about the cost-efficiency of their medical purchases.
Government welfare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are also emphasizing cost and patient engagement much more. These factors, and the digital economies ability to spread information, are contributing to the healthcare industry’s increasing interest in cost savings and thus RxREVU.
Carm Huntress, CEO of RxREVU, sees the startup’s recent funding as affirmation of the company’s value to the healthcare market.
"Reaching this milestone shows confidence in our ability to continue delivering prescription drug cost and efficacy information to engage consumers, identify medication cost saving opportunities and improve clinical outcomes," said Huntress.
As the healthcare industry industy continues to seek greater efficiency, look for companies like RxREVU squeezing out high prices and low performance.
