GoodRx Holdings, Inc., is an American

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

company that operates a telemedicine platform and free-to-use

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

and

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

that track

prescription drug prices in the United States Prescription drug prices in the United States are among the highest in the world, both in total spending and per capita costs. In 2023, the U.S. spent over $600 billion on prescription medications—more than any other country on a per-person ba ...

and provide

drug coupons A drug coupon is a coupon intended to help consumers save money on pharmaceutical drugs. They are offered by drug companies or distributed to consumers via doctors and pharmacists, and most can be obtained online. There are drug coupons f ...

for discounts on medications. GoodRx checks drug prices at more than seventy-five thousand pharmacies in the United States. 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, regardless of insurance status. Medical testing services, which vary in price, are also offered through the platform. In 2017, the website received about fourteen million visitors a month. As of February 25, 2020, "millions of people" had downloaded the GoodRx app.

History

GoodRx was founded in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, in 2011. In 2017, the company announced partnerships with major

pharmaceutical companies The pharmaceutical industry is a Medicine, medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or Self-medicate, self-administered b ...

to negotiate lower

prescription drug A prescription drug (also prescription medication, prescription medicine or prescription-only medication) is a pharmaceutical drug that is permitted to be dispensed only to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs c ...

costs. In September 2019, GoodRx acquired the telemedicine company HeyDoctor and rebranded the telemedicine platform as ''GoodRx Care''. In 2021, GoodRx acquired the health video company HealthiNation. In October 2022, GoodRx launched Provider Mode which allows healthcare providers to use the app to compare costs of drugs for patients based on different payment methods and drug alternatives. GoodRx began its partnership with

CVS Caremark CVS Caremark (formerly Caremark Rx) is the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of CVS Health, headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Company history Early years CVS Caremark was founded in 1993 as MedPartners, Inc. in Birmingham, Alab ...

in July 2023 to automatically apply coupons to insured CVS customers purchasing generic prescriptions at certain locations. In April 2024, GoodRx added

Publix Publix Super Markets, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Publix, is an employee ownership, employee-owned American supermarket Chain store, chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, Publix is a Privately h ...

into their network, allowing GoodRx Gold members to use their cards at Publix Pharmacies.

Key people

The Santa Monica-based startup was founded in September 2011 by Trevor Bezdek and former Facebook executives Doug Hirsch and Scott Marlette. Marlette was one of the first 20 employees at

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and built Facebook's photo application. In 2005, Hirsch was the Vice President of Product at Facebook, working closely with

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling sharehold ...

Controversy

On February 25, 2020, ''

Consumer Reports Consumer Reports (CR), formerly Consumers Union (CU), is an American nonprofit consumer organization dedicated to independent product testing, investigative journalism, consumer-oriented research, public education, and consumer advocacy. Founded ...

'' published an article stating that GoodRx shared user data—specifically, pseudonymized

advertising ID An advertising ID is a unique user identifier (ID) assigned to a mobile device (smart phone, tablet computer), or operating environment, to help advertising services personalize their offers. It can be sent to advertisers and other third parties wh ...

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 Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, and around twenty other internet-based companies. 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. In March 2020, GoodRx stopped sending data about user prescriptions to Facebook. On February 1, 2023, the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

fined GoodRx US$1.5 million for violations of th
Breach Notification Rule
and the

Federal Trade Commission Act The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 is a United States federal law which established the Federal Trade Commission. The Act was signed into law by US President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 and outlaws unfair methods of competition and unfair acts ...

for allegedly failing to obtain specific, informed, and unambiguous consent from users before disclosing health-related information to Facebook and Google.

References

External links

* {{authority control Companies based in Santa Monica, California Health care companies based in California Pharmacy in the United States American companies established in 2011 Health care companies established in 2011 Telemedicine Mobile applications 2020 initial public offerings Companies listed on the Nasdaq 2011 establishments in California Medical technology companies of the United States

History

Key people

Controversy

See also

References

External links