I've built a lot of healthcare software over the past 40 years. I didn't get into healthcare IT because I wanted to change the world. I just needed a job when I graduated from college with a degree in Computer Science and I landed one with HCA. An opportunistic entry into healthcare.
Over the years, I built software for nearly every stakeholder in the healthcare ecosystem - health systems, doctor's offices, insurance companies, pharmacies, and life sciences. I made money on the "in between" all of them. I helped to lead the conversion of the industry from paper to electronic business systems (RCM), clinical systems (EHR) and consumer-facing systems (all things mobile). I helped to replace the paper filing cabinets and fax machines with big computers on raised flooring, and then to replace those with smaller, network-based computers and eventually replace those with nothing at all (the cloud).
This post is not supposed to be about me. I'm just writing to have practice forcing myself to write something. It's not as bad as I thought.
Anyway, during those years of building software that connected the silos across the sectors of the ecosystem (that sounds so awful and jargony but it's actually a good description) I learned how things really work. Really, really work.
- Business process
- Two or more parties involved in the business process
- Data that flows underneath the business process
- Data sources and destinations
- Data exchange rules and regulations
- Laws governing all of the above
I'm an expert.
Yet after more than 30 years, I didn't know that pharma provides over $6 billion of coupons to patients. I was astonished and excited! Then perplexed because 90%+ of these coupons are not used. Then excited because I know how to mobilize these savings and wanted to do so through my job at OPRX. Then discouraged bc we didn't really make a dent in the problem and that was bc of the pharma revenue model. And then...
I made fuck you money. Enough to allow me to solve the problem.
Here is something that will really help people that I know how to do! I can make a difference and directly help people by putting my skills and experience to work.
I started RxUtility because I believe that patients should use every dollar of the available copay coupons. To do this,
