Q&A: Bonum Health’s Maaraba discusses how partnership can improve health outcomes

Drug Store News: Tell us about Bonum Health.  
Ashton Maaraba: Bonum Health is a digital health technology company. Our team combines compassion with technology to help people everywhere take control of their health.

Our focus is on making health care accessible, affordable and convenient for everyone. By using our Bonum Health mobile application (available for both iOS and Android), website or by being a Bonum Health+ for Business member, patients and employees nationwide can access not only U.S. board-certified medical providers, but also have access to our health risk assessment tools and personal protective equipment from home or on the go.

DSN: What differentiates your company from your competitors?  
AM: We are a unique low cost, deeply discounted and affordable patient-, provider-and pharmacist-centric telemedicine platform. With over 650 board-certified physicians and providers on staff, our patients gain access to affordable nonemergency medical care with Bonum Health’s free, customized telemedicine service buy-down code that is exclusive to retailers in our preferred membership program. Patients register the dedicated retailer code, linking it to a preferred member pharmacy. We have also partnered with RxSense’s SingleCare savings card program to innovate the patient telemedicine experience even further. We plan to integrate a proprietary smart pharmacy technology that further enhances prescription affordability at the first mile of prescription issuance.   

Bonum Health also provides employers with a user-friendly and engaging mobile application that bundles telemedicine, a COVID-19 risk-assessment tool and an e-shop where employers can order personal protective equipment in bulk as needed.

DSN: How do you help chain and independent pharmacies thrive?  
AM: We help chain and independent pharmacies by boosting their value-add medical service offerings by diversifying their healthcare market basket and helping them connect with the mobile and remote patient. With the discount service care coupon, they can offer patients, a unique, health care approved patient service model that deeply discounts access to premium, virtual medical care services. Our tools can help pharmacist form new relationships with digital healthcare prescribers in the 49 states that our medical providers e-prescribe, and we can help convert front-end shoppers into program participants.

Bonum Health provides a new Brand PAK (Pharmacy Activation Kit). This is a glitzy and attractive professional marketing tool kit that includes a variety of in-store, digital and social media messaging resources that help pharmacist educate and promote the collaborative care, telemedicine service experience between the store and Bonum Health Virtual Care Practice Specialists.

DSN: Can you talk about your company’s telehealth services?  
AM: Our telehealth services focus on the more than 15 million uninsured Americans, communities secluded from accessible health care, and the many more that suffer from high-deductible insurance plans that are searching for relief from their overburdening medical expenses. The Bonum Health telemedicine service has become more of an adherence-driven, virtual care platform than your traditional model. We are seeing a lift in medication adherence data because patients can both afford to speak to our physician and can opt for prescription delivery from their pharmacy of choice, so they never even have to leave their homes to pick up their prescription. These are two key indicators of medication adherence.

DSN: How are you helping pharmacies amid the pandemic?  
AM: Our B-to-B tool, Bonum Health+, gives pharmacists the option to generate new revenue by reselling Bonum Health+ as a healthcare benefit for one low price per employee per month. This includes telemedicine services with access to the 650-plus board-certified providers, a proprietary COVID-19 risk-assessment tool, and exclusive access to our PPE e-shop that provides discounts on bulk PPE to safeguard individuals and employees. Each solution is white labeled and adds value to the retail pharmacist arsenal of health services products they offer today.