Cost of Care: Mark Cuban launches low-cost online pharmacy

This illustration image shows tablets of opioid painkiller Oxycodon delivered on medical prescription taken on September 18, 2019 in Washington,DC. – Millions of Americans sank into addiction after using potent opioid painkillers that the companies churned out and doctors freely prescribed over the past two decades. Well over 400,000 people died of opioid overdoses in that period, while the companies involved raked in billions of dollars in profits. And while the flood of prescription opioids into the black market has now been curtailed, addicts are turning to heroin and highly potent fentanyl to compensate, where the risk of overdose and death is even higher. (Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo credit should read ERIC BARADAT/AFP/Getty Images)

Are you paying too much for your prescription medications? You’re likely nodding your head yes right now.

Well, there’s a new player in pill the game; a company started by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

The “Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company” has made it its mission to help everyone get safe, affordable medicines.

Brian Tannebaum first learned about the company the same way most people hear about things – on the internet.

“I looked into it and it seemed too good to be true,” Tannebaum explained. “So I compared some of the prescription prices and I signed up and took the form to my doctor. He filled it out and about a week later, I had some pills in my mailbox.”

The company’s mission statement, in part, is, “… to dramatically reduce the cost of drugs like Albendazole, but we also think that it is just as important to introduce transparency to the pricing of drugs so patients know they are getting a fair price.”

And that ‘fair price’ has been a moving target according to the University of Florida College of Pharmacy Professor Laura Happe.

Prices also vary depending on where you shop. We looked at the common drug Lisinopril, used to treat high blood pressure.

GoodRX shows you the range you might pay and offers coupons.

Cost Plus Drug Company showed them as $4.20 for 30 tablets that are 20 milligrams, Walgreens came in at $16.23, Costco at $12.59, and CVS at $12.96.

MORE: 10 Ways To Save on Prescription Drugs [external link | Clark Howard]

As for Tannenbaum, he found Cuban’s Cost Plus works for him. “There’s one pill that I take, that was costing me $30 a month with insurance, which is now costing me $20 for three months. So it’s just an exceptional saving..”

A saving that adds up to hundreds of dollars a year for three different medications.

“People are looking for a way to save money,” Tannenbaum added. “And so when I saw this, I thought, well, if I can save a few dollars. I didn’t realize I was gonna save $456 a year.”