Virtual health care needs fulfillment system
A method of operating a health care needs fulfillment system, by: (a) a PBM contracting with a plurality of health care suppliers to fulfill a plurality of health care needs requests; (b) end users sending individual health care needs requests to the PBM; (c) the PBM selecting the health care suppliers to supply each of the end users' individual health care needs requests; and (d) the PBM alerting the selected health care suppliers to fulfill the end users' individual health care needs requests.
1. An Internet-based health care needs fulfillment system, comprising:
a computing sub-system for a prescription benefit manager to solicit a plurality of pharmacies to participate in a bidding process;
a computing sub-system for the prescription benefit manager to receive a plurality of bid submissions from the plurality of pharmacies, wherein each bid submission comprises a bid to fulfill a bulk quantity of future prescriptions for a drug, each bid comprising pricing information for fulfilling the future prescriptions for the drug;
a computing sub-system for receiving at least one prescription from a patient;
a computing sub-system for the prescription benefit manager to select a first pharmacy from the plurality of pharmacies that submitted a bid to fulfill the at least one prescription, wherein the first pharmacy is selected by the prescription benefit manager and not the patient based on a comparison of the plurality of pharmacies to one another, wherein the comparison is based at least in part on the bid submissions and at least one of: a fulfillment price for the at least one prescription of each of the plurality of pharmacies, a location of each of the plurality of pharmacies, and an expertise level with regard to the at least one prescription of each of the plurality of pharmacies; a sub-system for contacting the selected first pharmacy to send the at least one prescription to the selected first pharmacy for fulfillment; and
a computing sub-system for collecting data on the selected first pharmacy fulfilling the at least one prescription.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sub-system for receiving the at least one prescription from the patient is an Internet-based sub-system.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the comparison is based on the fulfillment price for the at least one request for the prescription of each of the plurality of pharmacies.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the comparison is based on the location of each of the plurality of pharmacies.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the comparison is based on the expertise level with regard to the at least one request for the prescription of each of the plurality of pharmacies.
6. An Internet-based health care needs fulfillment system, comprising:
a computing sub-system for a first user to solicit a plurality of health care product suppliers to participate in a bidding process;
a computing sub-system for the first user to receive a plurality of bid submissions from the plurality of health care product suppliers, wherein each bid submission comprises a bid to fulfill a bulk quantity of future health care product requests for a particular health care product, each bid comprising pricing information for fulfilling the future health care product requests for the particular health care product;
a computing sub-system for receiving at least one health care product request from a second user;
a computing sub-system for the first user to select a first health care product supplier from the plurality of health care product suppliers that submitted a bid to fulfill the at least one health care product request, wherein the first health care product supplier is selected by the first user and not the second user based on a comparison of the plurality of health care product suppliers to one another, wherein the comparison is based at least in part on the bid submissions and at least one of: a fulfillment price for the at least one health care product request of each of the plurality of health care product suppliers, a location of each of the plurality of health care product suppliers, and an expertise level with regard to the at least one health care product request of each of the plurality of health care product suppliers;
a computing sub-system for contacting the selected first health care product supplier to send the at least one health care product request to the first health care product supplier for fulfillment; and
a computing sub-system for collecting data on the selected first health care product supplier fulfilling the at least one health care product request.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the second user is a patient.
8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a sub-system for the patient to request re-filling of the at least one health care product request.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the sub-system for the patient to request re-filling of the at least one health care product request comprises a system for the patient to request re-filling of the at least one health care product request from the first user.
10. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a sub-system for presenting an on-screen interface to the patient.
11. The system of claim 6 , wherein the sub-system for receiving the at least one health care product request from the second user is Internet based.
12. The system of claim 6 , wherein the comparison is based on the expertise level with regard to the at least one health care product request of each of the plurality of health care product suppliers.
13. The system of claim 6 , wherein the first user is a prescription benefit manager (PBM) that manages a health plan for the second user.
14. The system of claim 6 , wherein the sub-system for contacting the selected first health care product supplier contacts the selected first health care product supplier via e-mail.
15. The system of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of health care product suppliers comprise durable medical equipment suppliers, and wherein the at least one health care product request comprises a request for durable medical equipment.
16. The system of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of health care product suppliers comprise pharmacies, and wherein the at least one health care product request comprises a prescription.
17. The system of claim 6 , wherein the first user has pre-approved fulfillment of the at least one health care product request of the second user prior to sending the request to the selected first health care product supplier.
18. The system of claim 6 , wherein the sub-system controlled by the first user for selecting the first health care product supplier from the plurality of health care product suppliers to fulfill the at least one health care product request selects the first health care product supplier to fulfill requests for health care product of a type requested in the at least one health care product request prior to receiving the at least one health care product request from the second user.
19. An Internet-based health care needs fulfillment system, comprising:
a computing sub-system for a first user to select a plurality of health care product suppliers to fulfill received health care product requests;
a computing sub-system controlled by the first user to receive one or more bids from the plurality of health care product suppliers, wherein each bid comprises a price at which to fulfill future requests received by the first user for a health care product of a first type;
a computing sub-system for selecting a first bid from the one or more bids based at least in part on each price;
a computing sub-system for receiving at least one health care product request of the first type from a second user;
a computing sub-system for the first user to select a first health care product supplier from the plurality of health care product suppliers to fulfill the at least one health care product request, wherein the first health care product supplier is the health care product supplier associated with the first bid;
a computing sub-system for contacting the selected first health care product supplier to fulfill the at least one health care product request; and
a computing sub-system for collecting data on the selected first health care product supplier fulfilling the at least one health care product request.