Company:GoodRx

From HandWiki
Short description: American healthcare company
GoodRx
TypePublic
Founded2011; 13 years ago (2011)
FoundersTrevor Bezdek[1]
Doug Hirsch[1]
Scott Marlette[1]
Headquarters
Santa Monica, California
,
United States
Number of locations
2 (2019)
Area served
United States
Key people
  • Trevor Bezdek (co-CEO)[1]
  • Doug Hirsch (co-CEO)[1]
Services
RevenueIncrease $745.4 million (2021)[2]
Number of employees
777[2] (2021)
Websitegoodrx.com

GoodRx Holdings, Inc. is an American healthcare company that operates a telemedicine platform and free-to-use website and mobile app that track prescription drug prices in the United States and provide drug coupons for discounts on medications.[3] GoodRx checks drug prices at more than seventy-five thousand pharmacies in the United States.[4][5] In 2017, the website received about fourteen million visitors a month.[6] As of February 25, 2020, "millions of people" had downloaded the GoodRx app.[7]

History

GoodRx was founded in Santa Monica, California, in 2011. In 2017, the company announced partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies to negotiate lower prescription drug costs.[6][8] In September 2019, GoodRx acquired the telemedicine company HeyDoctor and rebranded the telemedicine platform as GoodRx Care.[3] The platform allows individuals to consult with a doctor online and obtain a prescription for certain types of medications at a cost of US$20 (As of December 2019) regardless of insurance status.[3] Medical testing services, which vary in price, are also offered through the platform.[3] In 2021, GoodRx acquired the health video company HealthiNation.[9]

Key people

The Santa Monica-based startup was founded in September 2011 by Trevor Bezdek and former Facebook executives Doug Hirsch and Scott Marlette.[4][10][11][12] Marlette was one of the first 20 employees at Facebook and built Facebook's photo application.[10] In 2005, Hirsch was the Vice President of Product at Facebook, working closely with Mark Zuckerberg.[11]

Controversy

On February 25, 2020, Consumer Reports published an article stating that GoodRx shared user data—specifically, pseudonymized advertising ID numbers that companies use to track the behavior of web users across websites, the names of the drugs that users browsed, and the pharmacies where user sought to fill prescriptions—with Google, Facebook, and around twenty other internet-based companies.[7] A few days later, GoodRx released a statement claiming it had made changes to prevent user search data on medical conditions and pharmaceuticals from being shared with Facebook.[13] In March 2020, GoodRx stopped sending data about users' prescriptions to Facebook.[14]

On February 1, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission fined GoodRx US$1.5 million for violations of the Breach Notification Rule and the Federal Trade Commission Act for allegedly failed to obtain specific, informed, and unambiguous consent from users before disclosing health-related information[15] to Facebook and Google.[16][17]

See also

  • Health care finance in the United States
  • RIP Medical Debt

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 CNBC.com Staff (May 15, 2019). "CNBC 2019 Disruptor 50". CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/14/goodrx-2019-disruptor-50.html. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "GoodRx 2021 10-K". sec.gov. https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1809519/000095017022002348/gdrx-20211231.htm. Retrieved 3 May 2022. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Tech GoodRx acquires telemedicine company HeyDoctor to add virtual healthcare services". September 27, 2019. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/goodrx-acquires-telemedicine-company-hey-doctor-to-add-virtual-healthcare-services. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Mcusic, Teresa. "Where to turn online to save money on prescription drugs". Star Telegram. http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/teresa-mcusic/article150221567.html. 
  5. "Money, drugs, and the medical practice: Can physicians benefit from helping patients reduce prescription costs? – Continuum" (in en-US). March 2018. https://www.carecloud.com/continuum/money-drugs-and-the-medical-practice-can-physicians-benefit-from-helping-patients-reduce-prescription-costs/. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 Thomas, Katie (February 9, 2016). "New Online Tools Offer Path to Lower Drug Prices". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/business/taming-drug-prices-by-pulling-back-the-curtain-online.html. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 Thomas Germain (March 6, 2020). "GoodRx Saves Money on Meds — It Also Shares Data With Google, Facebook, and Others". Consumer Reports. https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/goodrx-shares-users-health-data-with-google-facebook-others/. 
  8. Morgan, David (May 8, 2017). "Inside Rx aims to lower high prescription drug costs". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-rx-prescription-drug-costs/. 
  9. "GoodRx to acquire health video company HealthiNation forever and $75M in cash". April 20, 2021. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/goodrx-to-acquire-health-video-company-healthination-for-75m-cash. 
  10. 10.0 10.1 Dickinson, Boonsri. "These Ex-Facebook Guys Want To Help You Find Cheaper Drugs". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/these-ex-facebook-guys-want-to-help-you-find-cheaper-drugs-2012-2. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 Empson, Rip (February 19, 2012). "GoodRx Grabs $1M+ From SV Angel, Founders Fund & More To Help You Find Cheap Prescription Drugs". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/18/goodrx-grabs-1m-from-sv-angel-founders-fund-more-to-help-you-find-cheap-prescription-drugs/. 
  12. Lazarus, David (February 24, 2012). "Making it easy to comparison shop for prescription drugs". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/24/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120224. 
  13. "GoodRx and Data Privacy". GoodRx. February 28, 2020. https://www.goodrx.com/blog/goodrx-data-privacy/. 
  14. Germain, Thomas (March 6, 2020). "GoodRx Stops Sending Prescription Data to Facebook". https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/goodrx-stops-sending-prescription-data-to-facebook-a6520868989/. 
  15. Calascibetta, Thomas M. (21 March 2023). "Examining the FTC's GoodRx Case and the Growing Risks of Improper Data Collection and Processing". The National Law Review (Chuhak & Tecson P.C.). https://www.natlawreview.com/article/examining-ftc-s-goodrx-case-and-growing-risks-improper-data-collection-and. 
  16. Dudek, Mitch (February 1, 2023). "Discount prescription company GoodRx fined $1.5 million for sharing sensitive user info". https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2023/2/1/23581536/goodrx-fined-shared-user-info-targeted-advertising-ftc-discount-prescriptions-privacy. 
  17. Weatherbed, Jess (2023-02-02). "FTC fines GoodRx for sharing user health data with Google and Facebook" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/2/23582805/ftc-goodrx-complaint-fine-hipaa-health-data-privacy-google-facebook. 

External links