GoodRx, a medical app company that enables consumers to compare prices for and obtain discounts on prescription drugs and healthcare services, has announced an initiative aimed at providing free prescriptions and care to those in need.

As part of the GoodRx Helps initiative, funded with more than a million GoodRx shares valued at over $40 million as of December 18, 2020, the company has partnered with the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics to fully subsidize prescriptions for nearly a thousand medications at twenty-three clinics in sixteen states, with more clinics to be added. Medical providers at the selected clinics — which primarily serve communities with low-income patients who face additional barriers to accessing health care, including people from BIPOC, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities — enroll patients in the program, and GoodRx sends the patients' medications for free.

With more than twenty-five million people losing employer-sponsored health insurance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of Americans are filling fewer prescriptions — an estimated fifty-six million fewer prescriptions during the first six months of the public health crisis, according to GoodRx — while spending more out-of-pocket.

"Since GoodRx began in 2011, we've worked to help Americans get the care they need at a price they can afford, but we know there are times when discounts aren't enough," said GoodRx co-founder and co-CEO Doug Hirsch. "With GoodRx Helps, we hope to assist more patients who feel they've run out of options, especially in underserved communities that disproportionately face greater challenges when seeking affordable care."