DoseSpot, an electronic prescribing platform that enables providers to send prescriptions directly to a patient's pharmacy from a clinic, is launching DoseSpot Connect – a product suite designed to give patients instant access to pharmacies offering their prescribed medication at the lowest cost.

"Connect is giving patients transparency and choice with their medications that they've never had before," Josh Weiner, CEO of DoseSpot, told MobiHealthNews. 

"You as a patient are going to get a message as soon as you've been prescribed a medication that's going to lay out for the med that you've already been prescribed how much it will cost at different pharmacies, and it's going to take your insurance information into consideration," Weiner said. 

The tool will also inform patients if there is a more affordable way to obtain their medication without insurance. 

"It's kind of a radical price transparency for medication," Weiner said.

DoseSpot's software allows providers to prescribe medications and send them to a patient's pharmacy during or after an office visit. 

"What used to be done on the doctor's pad with their name and signature and all that, that's being done electronically in our system. And then what we're able to do because it's electronic is bring in key data points," Weiner said.

Connect consolidates these data points and presents them to patients when their medication is prescribed or refilled.

Beyond pricing, patients can select a preferred delivery method, such as mail order or in-person pickup, and compare costs between those options. If a patient doesn't respond to the text, the prescription will automatically go to their chosen pharmacy on file.

"We have the insurance information because we are tightly integrated into your care experience at the doctor's office. So we know if you're commercially or government-insured. We know what your PBM has said about your formulary and what that drug is going to cost at a specific pharmacy," Weiner said. 

"We are the first e-prescriber to ever do this, that gives patients true price transparency and pharmacy choice, and we are adhering strictly to the industry standards that are out there for the way that scripts should be sent, for controlled and non-controlled substances alike. We do it with the highest regard for security and compliance."