The Official Medtipster Blog

Jason Klein

In a recent blog post on 10/5/09, I made the following comment: “Now the trend appears to be to offer FREE prescriptions. REALLY! We’re all in!”

This comment was in regards to Stater Bros., Albertsons & Meijer pharmacies. These pharmacies offer certain prescriptions for free, such as antibiotics and prenatal vitamins. What I wasn’t doing was offering free prescriptions at medtipster.com.

We don’t actually sell anything, let alone prescriptions on our site. We are a purely informational site that hopes to engage consumers with relevant information for the right reasons, at the right time. If we don’t even sell them, giving them away for free certainly doesn’t fit into our business model. Or does it!?!

I received what felt like a thousand emails from our consumers asking how they could sign up to get their prescriptions for free. GULP!

Whoops! Did I actually imply that this is what we we’re doing and more importantly did that many people actually read my blog post? Apparently so.

As the new president of Medtipster, I certainly couldn’t let that many people down, so I had to think fast.

How do I offer FREE prescriptions to consumers that need them? First step was to engage the pharmacies. There was no way they were going to go for this, but I had to try.

My pitch went something like this: 

Jklein: “Thank you for your time today Mr./Mrs. pharmacy VP. I have an issue. I have thousands of consumers looking for relief on their prescription cost.”

PharmaVP: “Define relief?”

Jklein: “FREE?”

After much laughing, the conversation continued….

Jklein: “Thousands of people have contacted us at  www.medtipster.com looking for pharmacies offering “their” medications at the lowest price. It sounds cliche, but times are tough and people need us now more than ever. What’s the value of  a “bellybutton” walking into your store? We know whom these people are & what drug they’re looking for. Partner with us and I will drive them to your store. 

PharmaVP: “Can you be more specific on the number of people?”

Jklein: “Thousands….”

After a long awkward pause, the conversation continued….

PharmaVP:  “How many FREE prescriptions would you propose our pharmacy give away?”

Jklein: “Up to you. How many “bodies” do you want in your store?”

PharmaVP: “Okay. Let’s give it a go.”

The rest is, as they say, history.

Effective December 1st, 2009 Medtipster (via a partnership with American Sweeps) will be the engine offering Michigan residents access to free medications at select Michigan pharmacies. Consumers will search for their medications & register on medtipster.com. Selected consumers will receive a Medtipster email with a link to a voucher that can be used to redeem their medication at no cost. The voucher will specifically tell enrolled consumers which pharmacy has their selected medication.

This is our beta-test and will be running from December 1st- 31st. The intent for this campaign is to repeat monthly in Michigan, among other states throughout 2010.

Register at www.medtipster.com

So again… “Now the trend appears to be to offer FREE prescriptions. REALLY! We’re all in!”

Thank you for your time, your comments and happy browsing at medtipster.com!

JK

Jason A. Klein
President
Medtipster, LLC.
email: jklein@medtipster.com
web address: www.medtipster.com