OPTIMIZERx Helps Patients Save on Rising Prescription Co-Pay Costs

ROCHESTER, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tens of thousands of patients have visited the OPTIMIZERx website (www.optimizerx.com) to save on their rising out-of-pocket costs for prescription medications since its launch in January 2007.

“Since the majority of Americans are eligible to participate in the programs and special offers available through the OPTIMIZERx website and since some of the most popular brand-name medications are available, we expect to help millions of people save on their rising prescription co-pay costs”

“We are very pleased by the large number of patients who have come to OPTIMIZERx and discovered great savings on their prescribed medications,” said Dr. Jay Pinney, medical director for OPTIMIZERx. “Our mission goes beyond saving people money. We want to make it easier for patients to comply with their doctors’ instructions and take care of their health by making prescription medication more affordable.”

With escalating co-pay costs now being passed on to patients, many Americans are finding out the hard way that, even with healthcare insurance, they are not immune to the rising cost of prescription medication. Too often, particularly when a brand-name product has been prescribed, patients are choosing not to fill their prescriptions due to high out-of-pocket costs.

OPTIMIZERx is the first program in the industry to target middle-class Americans who have health insurance but would like to reduce their growing co-payments.

“Since the majority of Americans are eligible to participate in the programs and special offers available through the OPTIMIZERx website and since some of the most popular brand-name medications are available, we expect to help millions of people save on their rising prescription co-pay costs,” said Dr. Pinney.

According to the Washington, DC-based Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Prescription Drug Trends Report,” the average co-payment for non-preferred brand-name products has doubled over the last five years and preferred brand-name product co-pay costs have increased 65 percent. As a result, nearly one out of five patients choose not to fill a prescription when met with a “surprise” co-pay cost.

“Over the last few years, my husband’s company medical plan required us to pay higher co-pay costs for our prescriptions. We were finding it more and more difficult to afford our monthly prescriptions,” said Marianne Herzog, who went to OPTIMIZERx and found savings on both her diabetes medicine and her husband’s cholesterol medicine.

OPTIMIZERx offers patients a single, simple website where they can locate, evaluate and participate in trial offers and other savings programs for the types of medicines they currently take or may require in the future. Currently, OPTIMIZERx provides savings on many leading medicines to treat:

heart disease
diabetes
asthma
GI disorders
other chronic illnesses

Additionally, the OPTIMIZERx website offers free trials of leading products to treat sleep disorder, erectile dysfunction and other common ailments.

Patients simply go to www.optimizerx.com and select or type in the name of each brand-name prescription product in which they are interested. OPTIMIZERx then determines if there is an available savings offer for that product. If not, OPTIMIZERx looks for any alternative products within that category that may offer savings. The amount of savings depends on the type of medication and available product offers. Additionally, OPTIMIZERx also offers savings on over-the-counter medications and other healthcare products and services.

“We expect many more savings offers to be added to OPTIMIZERx based on our current discussions with pharmaceutical brands that are excited to expand affordable access to their product therapies,” said David Harrell, OPTIMIZERx Systems CEO.

OPTIMIZERx Systems, LLC, was founded in Michigan by a group of physicians and pharmaceutical industry veterans. OPTIMIZERx is a Web-based system that provides patients with information that will enable them, in partnership with their physicians, to optimize their prescription and healthcare dollars. For more information, please visit www.optimizerx.com.