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Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

beckershospitalreview.com

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Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#181

Post by ALittleLight »

throwaway78987 wrote: post #144
ALittleLight wrote: post #76

Either I don't understand the phrase "Vertical integration" or Mark Cuban doesn't. Cuban says "We basically created a vertically integrated manufacturing company." But, they don't do manufacturing, because later Cuban says "The manufacturers love what we're doing for that reason". They also apparently don't do the pharmacy aspect because Cuban says his company "charges a $3 pharmacy fee to pay the pharmacists it work…

Ok; personally knew Alex. I think there is a lack of understanding here. Yes maybe you can get some drugs cheaper at Walmart, but certainly not all “generic” drugs. Once a drug is outside patent protection, others can manufacture it but you have to show equivalence, which can require samples from the original or existing manufacturers, who can and have tightly controlled distribution to make it very challenging to ge…

This article is simply saying things that are wrong. That merits criticism regardless of what other people may or may not be doing. Their company isn't vertically integrated. They are reselling generics drugs online and may build a small factory in the future.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#182

Post by Scoundreller »

adam_arthur wrote: post #173
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you don't need a prescription for corrective lenses. I've ordered them without and just had to confirm there would be no returns and such

I'm pretty confident it's not possible, as I was specifically looking for this recently. But please link me to a US site where I can legally buy contacts without providing proof of prescription, if there is one!

Dunno if they ship to USA, but all of the Canadian online shops shipped to me without sending over any proof.

One province de-regulated dispensing of corrective lenses and anyone could get in the game, and many did!

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#183

Post by pierrefermat1 »

throwaway78987 wrote: post #144
ALittleLight wrote: post #76

Either I don't understand the phrase "Vertical integration" or Mark Cuban doesn't. Cuban says "We basically created a vertically integrated manufacturing company." But, they don't do manufacturing, because later Cuban says "The manufacturers love what we're doing for that reason". They also apparently don't do the pharmacy aspect because Cuban says his company "charges a $3 pharmacy fee to pay the pharmacists it work…

Ok; personally knew Alex. I think there is a lack of understanding here. Yes maybe you can get some drugs cheaper at Walmart, but certainly not all “generic” drugs. Once a drug is outside patent protection, others can manufacture it but you have to show equivalence, which can require samples from the original or existing manufacturers, who can and have tightly controlled distribution to make it very challenging to ge…

This response makes no sense whatsoever, the parent comment was making a criticism for falsely using the phrase vertical integrated which you do not address at all

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#184

Post by Scoundreller »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #149
ALittleLight wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't cut out any middlemen. It adds one middleman - Mark Cuban. Literally all he is doing is buying wholesale and selling retail with a markup. He's even powered by an existing online pharmacy company (truepill). If you look up details about his factory it's supposed to be built sometime next year. On Google maps, looking at the address, I wasn't able to see any evidence of this place existing. It's also suppos…

>It doesn't cut out any middlemen. I listed two, do you disagree that they are removed?

Is there a pharmacy that requires the use of an insurance company or a PBM? I thought involving them was always voluntary (and someones people would pay 100% of the “cash” price because it can be less than a copay).

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#185

Post by Scoundreller »

briHass wrote: post #74
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #7

On one hand, we should obviously applaud anyone doing anything to bring down drug prices. On the other hand, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with just how much free marketing and PR is being applied to the "Mark Cuban Pharmacy" without much critical examination of what's going on here. Taking one of the examples straight from their homepage: They will sell you 30 Prozac tablets for $3.90: https://costplusdrugs.com/med…

>I'm concerned that Mark Cuban is capitalizing on people's lack of understanding about how insurance works and how easy it can be to look up drug prices (use your insurance company's website or just pick up the phone and call your pharmacy, they'll check for you) That certainly hasn't been my experience. Most pharmacies I've tried this with need to actually 'fill' the script and run it through insurance to get a fina…

> It's honestly like shopping at Kohls where if you aren't stacking coupons, you're the sucker paying too much.

It’s probably the US government that’s the sucker here. Probably a rule that they have to get the “best price” and that’s probably the cash price that no human pays because they all show up with a discount card/insurance.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#186

Post by bmarquez »

zdragnar wrote: post #179
fastball wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So GC claimed that some US Medicare/aid prices would cause HCW to make less than minimum wage, yet now you say salaries are 2-3x higher than Europe, which generally has higher minimum wages. Somehow all these excuses are still not jiving.

To clarify my point, the prices causing less than minimum wage income were for those procedures only . Other procedures paid more, but often not enough. On average, Medicare pays about 80% of what an insurance company will typically pay. Try finding a doctor while on Medicare; depending on region and specialty, only 2/5 to 2/3 doctors will take patients on Medicare. One other thing you may have missed: salaries are f…

> Try finding a doctor while on Medicare; depending on region and specialty, only 2/5 to 2/3 doctors will take patients on Medicare.

One thing that I've noticed is that there are private practice doctors that will take Medicare/Medicaid but the wait time for an appointment is longer compared to private insurance. It's like they decided to space out the less-profitable patients to maintain their margins. (I knew a few people who had the same primary care physician but different insurances.)

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#187

Post by adam_arthur »

Scoundreller wrote: post #182
adam_arthur wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty confident it's not possible, as I was specifically looking for this recently. But please link me to a US site where I can legally buy contacts without providing proof of prescription, if there is one!

Dunno if they ship to USA, but all of the Canadian online shops shipped to me without sending over any proof. One province de-regulated dispensing of corrective lenses and anyone could get in the game, and many did!

Oh, well yeah, other countries have less regulation. It's not possible in the US right now.

But good to hear you can in Canada!

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#188

Post by InvaderFizz »

adam_arthur wrote: post #173
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you don't need a prescription for corrective lenses. I've ordered them without and just had to confirm there would be no returns and such

I'm pretty confident it's not possible, as I was specifically looking for this recently. But please link me to a US site where I can legally buy contacts without providing proof of prescription, if there is one!

I looked into this, apparently it is a legal requirement in the US for contacts.

That said, for normal eyeglasses, there are many sites that offer eyeglasses without proof of prescription. I've been buying eyeglasses from Zenni Optical for almost a decade for my whole family. Most recently in 2021. I have never once even been asked for proof of prescription, I just punch in my numbers and hit order.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#189

Post by friedturkey »

bushbaba wrote: post #161
friedturkey wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism is what got America into its health care mess. Other countries aren't paying thousands for simple pills or insulin.

It’s not capitalist. Heck try even getting a price quote online for a pharmaceutical drug. Oh wait you can’t as “it depends”. Why the government hasn’t stepped in, is pure corruption.

I mean, you said the government not stepping in is the problem, and the source of that problem is money...

That's just what capitalism is. There is no ideal world where people max out their earnings and say "haha i'll be a friendly competitor and work for the benefit of the people :))))". People with vested interests will always push for less regulation, and the consequence of a successful push is never "everyone is better off and paying less!" Other developed countries have more regulation and lower prices. That's simply a fact.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#190

Post by weird-eye-issue »

adam_arthur wrote: post #173
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you don't need a prescription for corrective lenses. I've ordered them without and just had to confirm there would be no returns and such

I'm pretty confident it's not possible, as I was specifically looking for this recently. But please link me to a US site where I can legally buy contacts without providing proof of prescription, if there is one!

I used framesdirect.com. I didn't say I bought contacts though, it might be different
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