Ex-Amazon Pharmacy Manager Leads New Startup Aiming to Help Contractors Save on Medication

GeekWire
BY TAYLOR SOPER
A new startup born out of Pioneer Square Labs in Seattle wants to help independent workers who don’t have medical insurance save money at the pharmacy.

Otis is targeting freelance and part-time workers with a digital discount card. The company also acts as a price aggregator, helping people find the lowest cost for medication purchased at pharmacies.

Otis is led by CEO Steve Moses, a former senior product manager at Amazon Pharmacy.

“I realized how much discrepancy there was with pricing, and how it was very difficult for a patient to get a sense of how much medication costs,” Moses said of his time at Amazon Pharmacy, the tech giant’s pharmacy arm born out of its acquisition of PillPack.

Otis members sign up for free and get their card via text message. They show the card to a pharmacist and get discounts up to 90% off retail price.

Otis generates revenue by charging pharmacies one set fee for every medication. That sets it apart from traditional players such as pharmacy benefit managers, Moses said.

“We want to give more savings back to the customer by taking less for ourselves and having one simple transaction fee that’s not based on the dollar amount the patient pays,” he said. “We’re not incentivized to drive up that price or to maximize their payment.”

The company is betting that it can use lower fees but make up the difference by attracting more users. Moses called it a “very lean margin model.”

There are discount or coupons offered by various digital health companies such as Amazon Pharmacy and GoodRx.

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