COMPETITIVE ONLINE PRESCRIPTION PRICING SYSTEM

• US 20090083064A1
• Filed: 09/24/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: David Mahinda
• Original Assignee: David Mahinda
• Inventors: Mahinda, David
• Application Number:
  US11/859,951
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083064A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients

Abstract

A method and system for providing a transaction where a consumer with a valid refill for a prescription drug previously filled by a licensed pharmacist, wherein the consumer sends a bid for the prescription drug price to several participating pharmacies simultaneously online receives an offer from a pharmacy for the bid price submitted by the consumer or lower price. The transaction does not require the consumer to enter the patient'"'"'s name, social security number, date of birth or address or prescription number. The consumer is required to select drug information. If the bid is accepted by a participating pharmacy the consumer presents the accepted offer to the pharmacy that accepted the bid.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of performing online prescription drug bid pricing by pharmacies comprising:

listing a plurality of prescription drugs searchable by consumers via a Web page of a Web server for online search system;

accepting a bid from a registered user for a specific drug selected from a list via the Web page over a network;

distributing said bid to a plurality of participating pharmacies over the internet;

initiating a Prescription Price offer transaction;

matching the bid for the drug with at most one offer from a pharmacy selected from said participating pharmacies, said offer including an offer price specifying a prescription drug, price and a quantity and conditions at which the participating pharmacy will sell the drug to the user;

said matching occurring for a predetermined time period or until a suitable offer having an offer price less than or equal to said bid is received;

generating without intervention from the consumer, an RX Price offer transaction ticket if there is only one participating pharmacy having an offer price less than or equal to the bid price;

checking drug interactions;

displaying the generated Prescription Price Offer to the consumer that submitted the bid and the pharmacy that accepted the bid;

communicating the RX Price offer transaction to the consumer that submitted the bid and the pharmacy that accepted the bid.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising the step of:

listing a set of particular prescription drugs and,

operating a Web site with a catalog of participating licensed pharmacies offering prices on said listed drugs;

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said catalog of pharmacies offering said pricing is searchable using the Internet by registered users.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said Web site comprises:

a directory of prescription drugs including drug name, drug dose, manufacturer of the drug, quantity of the drug offered at the specified price, expiration date of the drug, batch number of the drug, country of drug manufacture and the price.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said catalog of pharmacies includes name, license number, address and phone number of the pharmacy listing said prescription drug.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user registers at the said website comprising:

entering a user name and a user password.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

entering the user'"'"'s bid of a particular drug selected from a list to be sent to participating pharmacies located in a zip code selected by the user.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

selecting a set of user information including age, confirmation email, zip code where the prescription was last filled, date of last prescription fill for the drug and the zip code of participating pharmacies where the bid is sent, and

distributing said bid for said drug to a set of participating pharmacies found in zip codes selected by the user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein distributing said bid for the drug to said set of participating pharmacies comprises creating a web page that specifies the bid and,

selecting at least one pharmacy specifying a price equal to or lower than the bid price.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein accepting the bid for said prescription drug from said user comprises receiving an HTML form.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating a Prescription Price offer transaction by system, charging a predetermined service fee and;

generating a Prescription Price Offer ticket, wherein said ticket includes the name, phone number and address of the pharmacy accepting the bid, bid expiration date and conditions for redeeming the offer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein displaying the generated Prescription Price Offer further includes:

sending email specifying the details on the Prescription Offer ticket offers to said user and said pharmacy accepting the bid.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

allowing for a predetermined time period the user to reject the Prescription Price Offer,

and,

initiating a prescription Price offer transaction, and charging a predetermined service fee if the user does not reject the offer within the predetermined time.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the participating pharmacy information is provided to the user after the pharmacy has accepted the user'"'"'s bid.

15. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

accepting the user'"'"'s registration information prior to accepting the bid from said user.

16. The method of claim 1, Further comprising the step of:

checking drug interactions wherein a user selects the option to check drug interactions between multiple drugs selected by the user for the bid.

17. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions including instruction for prescription pricing initiated by a user sending a bid for a particular drug to a set of participating pharmacies, the instructions, when executed by a microprocessor cause the microprocessor to perform the steps of:

listing a set of prescription drugs, available for user'"'"'s bid sent via a Web page of a Web server;

accepting a bid from a particular consumer for a particular drug order via the Web page over a network;

matching the bid for the drug with the pharmacy listing the particular drug order for the bid price or lowest price in the selected zip code;

generating a Prescription Price offer transaction ticket and charging a predetermined service fee to the pharmacy for the service;

distributing said Prescription Price Offer transaction information to the user and the pharmacy accepting the bid;

if there are multiple offers having an offer price less than to the bid price, presenting the user with the lowest price in the selected zip code;

checking drug interactions wherein a user selects the option to check drug interactions between multiple drugs selected by the user for the bid;

sending email specifying the details on the Prescription Offer ticket to said user and said pharmacy accepting the bid;

allowing for a predetermined time period the user to reject the Prescription Price Offer,

and,

initiating a prescription Price offer transaction, and charging a predetermined service fee if the user does not reject the offer within the predetermined time.