Scripta Insights launches new member app to lower prescription drug costs

Scripta Insights, a healthcare IT and data analytics company focused on lowering prescription drug costs, has launched a new member app and health benefit that gives self-insured employers, health plans and their members the information and tools they need to make smarter buying decisions around Rx benefits and prescriptions.

The company described the app as one that provides unprecedented transparency into drug pricing on the member’s health plan, giving patients and their doctors more cost-effective treatment options to consider, without compromising efficacy.

“With record-high inflation squeezing companies and consumers, there is a need, now more than ever, for smart solutions that empower the burgeoning healthcare consumerism movement in the U.S.,” said Eric Levin, CEO of Scripta Insights. “At Scripta, we’re putting the patient in the driver’s seat when it comes to making decisions about the medicines they take like never before, allowing Americans to shop as intelligently and economically for prescription drugs as they can for most other items they buy.”

The Scripta member app was designed to make prescription shopping easy. Members and dependents who are eligible for the Scripta health benefit can compare both prices on their health plan and cash-pay options, choose where to fill and view all the ways they can save by downloading the free app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Scripta’s recommendations also consider plan savings, eliminating wasted spend.

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“Until now, patients have been left out of the prescribing process and they need to know they have choices when it comes to their prescriptions,” said Levin. “Add to that, there is often a misperception that the medicine a doctor prescribes is the only option, when, in fact, there are often several therapeutic alternatives that are just as effective, if not more effective, that may cost less. We won’t rest until we have reduced the stress at the pharmacy counter that is burdening so many Americans.”

Scripta’s Personalized Savings Reports are now even more interactive and informative. In addition to viewing lower-priced options that are the same or clinically equivalent to the meds they’re already taking, members can now learn about those alternatives with expanded drug profiles and educational videos, and get more detailed next steps on how to save.

Members also can look up new prescriptions while still at their doctor’s office and see real-time pricing information, so they know the cost before they fill and can have better informed discussions with their doctors during the prescribing process.

Eligible members also receive personalized coupons, powered by SingleCare, for their current medications, as well as alternatives that require a new prescription, with pricing at nearby pharmacies.

Scripta has partnered with SingleCare, the free prescription savings service that offers consumers fast and easy access to consistently low prices on prescription drugs, to add “Coupons” to its arsenal of more than 30 Scripta Savings Strategies. This allows members to save up to 80% on their prescription medications at 35,000 pharmacies nationwide, including CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, Rite Aid, Publix and Meijer.

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“By adding SingleCare’s prescription savings into Scripta’s drug recommendation engine, we are able to offer ‘Precision Couponing’ for the first time, delivering members the right cash-pay coupons for the right med, at the right pharmacy, at the right time—every time,” said Levin. “This is not your typical discount card program. We layer SingleCare’s options on top of existing Scripta proprietary Savings Strategies for even more savings, a powerful combination that can help lower members’ out-of-pocket costs and save the plan, so it’s a win-win.”

Members can easily access their coupons in the new Scripta member app. There, they can search by zip code to see the coupon price at participating pharmacies convenient to them. Coupons may be especially useful to members before they meet their deductible when they bear the full burden of the prescription.

In 2023, Scripta is rolling out a personalized medicine program for select clients. Scripta has partnered with RxMapper, a personalized medication platform and telehealth consult practice developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic. RxMapper sequences and analyzes a patient’s DNA and utilizes those results to identify which drugs the patient should and should not take based on their DNA, resulting in lower costs and better health outcomes.

Forty-eight percent of drugs prescribed are the wrong drug or dose and the annual costs of not getting patients on the right medications is $528.4 million. The current trial-and-error approach to the prescribing of medications results in poor health outcomes and is driving runaway drug costs, the company said.

The Scripta/RxMapper program offers high-acuity patients, who account for 50 to 65% of total drug spending, the opportunity to have their DNA sequenced. RxMapper's personalized medication services are designed to get patients on the right drug and can help avoid serious side effects, adjust the dose of a current medication or recommend a new medication that is likely to be more effective based on the patient’s DNA. Layering RxMapper on top of Scripta’s exclusive savings database finds the most efficacious and cost-effective medicines for these members, the company said.

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“Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, RxMapper’s cutting-edge technology enables us to examine patients at a molecular level and identify medications that are likely to be safe and effective based on their DNA,” said Jim Miller, co-founder and CEO of RxMapper. “We are excited to partner with Scripta Insights to help patients get on the right medications, right away, so that they can lead healthier, happier and more productive lives.”

Scripta also has partnered with Lightbeam Health Solutions. Sripta is powering Lightbeam Rx Insights, a pharmacy cost containment program available to its ACOs, payers, provider groups, health systems, self-insured clients and their 40+ million patient lives.