Epic Systems has unveiled Prescription Marketplace, a feature that embeds drug cost comparison into the electronic health record so clinicians and patients can check prices before a prescription is transmitted.
The tool shows both the cash price at a pharmacy and an estimate of what the patient would pay with insurance. That comparison normally happens after the fact, when a patient arrives at the counter and discovers the cost, which is often when adherence breaks down. Epic cited data showing more than 40 percent of adults have skipped medications because of price.
The company worked with Amazon Pharmacy, Eli Lilly and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs on the marketplace. Epic plans to make the tool available in summer 2027.
Drug price transparency at the point of care has been a repeated policy goal with limited delivery, largely because pricing data sits in fragmented pharmacy benefit systems. Putting it inside the EHR is a bet that the ordering moment is where behavior can actually change.
