AEE13: Have You Ever Wondered How GoodRx Makes Money? With Ge Bai, PhD, CPA

In this "An Expert Explains" minisode, Stacey Richter talks with Ge Bai, PhD, CPA, associate professor at Johns Hopkins, about how GoodRx actually makes money — and why its savings only exist because of dysfunction in the pharmacy supply chain.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ How GoodRx's business model differs from Amazon Pharmacy's

✅ Why cash-pay pharmacy prices are inflated in the first place, and how PBM contracts drive that

✅ How GoodRx contracts with a network of PBMs to secure lower prices for "cash-pay" patients

✅ Where the pharmacy itself fits into the GoodRx transaction

WHY THIS MATTERS

GoodRx looks to patients like a way to pay cash without a middleman, but Dr. Bai explains that it actually works by routing patients through a PBM network behind the scenes. The reason it saves people money at all is that PBM contracts require pharmacies to give PBM-network patients the best price, which leaves anyone walking in without a PBM card — the true cash-pay patient — paying inflated list prices. GoodRx's savings, in other words, are a symptom of a dysfunctional pricing structure, not a fix for it.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction

01:53 What's the difference between GoodRx and Amazon Pharmacy?

02:17 "GoodRx pharmacy makes money from one fact, and one fact alone."

03:43 "On the surface, it looks like the patients are paying cash without any middleman; but in reality, the patients are paying cash by using a network created by a PBM."

04:52 "GoodRx contracts with a network of PBMs."

06:06 Where does the pharmacy fit in this deal?