Raymond Xu, MD, discusses Cost Plus Drugs and urogynecologic medications

Multiple reports have highlighted the utility of tools such as the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company for saving on the price of medications, including urologic medications. In a recent study published in Urogynecology, researchers sought to evaluate the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company in relation to treatments for urogynecologic conditions.¹

Study author Raymond Xu, MD, spoke with Urology Times® regarding the study. He said, “I would like to give a shout-out to my co-authors, Dr Amr Sherif El Haraki, as well as Dr Megan Escott, for their help on this study, which essentially highlighted financial inefficiency within Medicare Part D. Our study was inspired by Dr [Brian] Cortese and Dr Ruchika Talwar’s comparison of urologic drug prices through Medicare and Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company. Our study specifically focused on 16 drugs commonly used to treat urogynecologic conditions, such as OAB, recurring UTIs, as well as highlighting vaginal estrogen cream. Our study actually found that medications purchased through Cost Plus Drugs were universally cheaper when compared to Medicare costs for each of these 16 drugs.” Xu is a urology resident at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Xu was also asked what steps he believes health care professionals should take to ensure patients are aware of and can access these cost-saving options. He said, “When I talk to physicians outside of urology, as well as within urology, much of the hesitation with using Cost Plus Drugs is that it seems complicated to use, when in reality, the process is actually very simple. Patients will sign up for an account on the website, which takes a few minutes, and they fill out some basic information, such as their email address and home address, and then they're given an ID number, which you as the provider then use to prescribe the medication. On the provider side, all you have to do is just select Cost Plus Drugs as the patient's pharmacy, and then you make sure that you have the correct email address and the drug automatically gets shipped over to the patient's home. Now, getting physicians on board with using a program like cost plus drugs is probably the first step to advocating its use to benefit our patients.”

REFERENCE

1. Xu R, Escott M, El Haraki AS. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company effect on urogynecologic drugs. Urogynecology (Phila). 2025 Jan 24. doi:10.1097/SPV.0000000000001653