FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bid For Medicine ONLINE
USING AUCTIONS TO REDUCE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS
Wednesday August 16, 2006
Bid For Medicine, a free online auction service designed to reduce consumers’
prescription drug costs by 20-40%, is now available at BidforRx.com.
With Bid For Medicine, a consumer with a legitimate doctor’s prescription can
log onto the site, clicks on information about their prescription requirements
to create a patient profile, and then participating, licensed pharmacies compete
to provide the required prescription at the lowest total price.
Consumers include all their prescription and non-prescription medications in their
patient profile, so Bid For Medicine technology can alert pharmacies to potential drug
interactions.
Pharmacies see only the prescription requirement and not any personal data about
the consumer during the auction. The consumer, though, can see the name and address
of all participating pharmacies and the pharmacies’ prices, plus any shipping.
After the auction is completed, consumers choose whether to release their personal
information to a selected pharmacy to fill their prescription. Auctions take 24-72
hours at the consumer’s discretion. Longer auction times generally result
in lower prices.
The reverse-auction technology for healthcare is patented, free to both consumers
and pharmacies and completely secure.
Kevin Moshayedi, CEO of Bid For Medicine’s parent company Medicine Online Inc.,
said, “Bid For Medicine reduces prescription prices by increasing the number of
pharmacies who can consider the consumer’s requirement, any discount coupons
from pharmaceutical companies, etc., and by placing the pharmacies in an explicitly
competitive marketplace. Beta testing confirms savings of 20-40% off list prices
and proves the security and confidentiality of the process.” Approximately
120 pharmacies are participating in Bid For Medicine now with company plans to increase
participation to 1000 pharmacies nationwide by year-end.
Bid For Medicine is designed for prescription drugs, as well as vitamins and alternative
healthcare products. Bid For Medicine expects that most of the participating consumers
will seek auctions on their long-term – and usually expensive – prescription
requirements. Consumers with tax-advantaged HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS (HSA’s)
and FLEXIBLE SAVINGS ACCOUNTS (FSA’s) will save money that they can divert
to other healthcare needs and receive a receipt from Bid For Medicine to submit expenses
under these plans.
“During beta testing, Bid For Medicine received 320,000 page views per month from
all across the country as well as a flood of e-mails asking for full roll-out,”
Moshayedi said. “Among the most frequently asked questions were participation
of Canadian pharmacies, whose prescription drug prices are much lower than in
USA. Currently, Canadian pharmacies cannot legally supply prescription drugs to
USA addresses. Our mission is to reduce pharmacy prices significantly for American
consumers while abiding by all federal and state laws and regulations.”
Bid For Medicine is a division of Medicine Online Inc. (MOL) which pioneered reverse-auction
technology for healthcare in 2000. Medicine Online’s owners include board-certified
physicians and dentists, who are actively seeking ways for more people to afford
better healthcare.
Medicine Online operates a consumer healthcare website www.medicineonline.com
with 25 million page views per month, and a professional healthcare provider website
www.mol.net. Medicine Online also introduced Bid for Surgery in 2000, a popular
and once-controversial auction site for plastic surgery that continues today,
using the same reverse-auction technology as Bid For Medicine.
Contact: David Puffer
Medicine Online Public Relations
714-500-3612
davidp@mol.net
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