[maxerickson]

GoodRx is a pharmacy benefit manager, most insurance companies use a pharmacy benefit manager. What they do is negotiate prices for some certain set of drugs. So 2 insurance companies might have 2 different prices than GoodRx and each of the 3 will offer a slightly different set of drugs.

When you use insurance and pay the co-pay, that counts against your out of pocket maximum on the plan. Prescriptions bought with GoodRx don't.

The insurance isn't doing a great job when they charge a co-pay that is larger than the price GoodRx has negotiated, but it isn't evidence of a scam.

[pramttl]

GoodRx is not a Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) actually. A PBM negotiates prices with pharmacies to include them in their network, GoodRx does not do that to my knowledge. Instead, GoodRx offers a service that allows users to compare different coupon and membership prices so that people can chose the best available price/pharmacy combination.

[maxerickson]

They do it by taking up the role of a PBM. This is for some other discounter, but you get the idea, they process the prescription using GoodRx's system:

https://www.discountdrugnetwork.com/what-rx-bin-and-group-nu...