Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs expands options in North Texas
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Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs has a new partnership with a full-service online pharmacy to get low-cost medications to more people across Texas.
Driving the news: This fall, Cost Plus Drugs started working with online-based Alto Pharmacy (no affiliation with the rideshare company Alto) to expand prescription pickup and delivery options in cities like Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin where Alto operates.
Why it matters: More than a million Texans, most of whom are children, lost Medicaid health insurance in recent months as their paperwork fell through the cracks amid a struggling public health system.
- Medications are often costly without a decent insurance plan and can become burdensome to low-income families.
How it works: Cost Plus Drugs has over 1,000 generic medications in its online pharmacy. Medications are marked up 15% from the supplier's price — along with a fee for filling them at a pharmacy or getting them shipped.
- The company has partnerships with hundreds of pharmacies nationwide, including Kroger and some independent pharmacies locally, to distribute its drugs.
What's new: Alto Pharmacy offers a pickup option and courier delivery, letting Cost Plus Drugs users specify their preferred delivery window.
- "Our partnership with Cost Plus Drugs allows us to help even more patients as we pursue our mission to fulfill medicine's true purpose — to improve quality of life — for everyone who needs it," Alto Pharmacy CEO Alicia Boler Davis said in a statement.
Meanwhile: Cost Plus Drugs opened a 22,600-square-foot facility in Deep Ellum earlier this year to produce "lifesaving" injectable medications and items on the FDA's drug shortages list at the "lowest possible cost."
Yes, but: Some Cost Plus Drugs customers have complained of trouble reaching the company's customer service representatives to address issues.
- The Contact Us page only has an online form for issues, not a direct phone number.