Team Cuban Card Includes Transparent Pricing for Cash Patients

Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs is expanding its affiliate pharmacy network, which now covers all 50 states. It is pitching its Team Cuban Card as a transparent alternative to traditional prescription discount cards, according to Erin Albert, MBA, PharmD, JD, DASPL, who spoke with Drug Topics about the program.

The company runs several connected businesses: a 503B sterile fill-finish manufacturing facility in Dallas, Texas; a wholesale division; the mail-order pharmacy CostPlusDrugs.com; and the Cost Plus Drugs Marketplace. Albert said the Marketplace works like a shopping mall of outside distributors. Licensed pharmacies can buy drugs there at the "Mark Cuban cost," which also sets ingredient pricing for the Team Cuban Card.

A Simple, Published Formula

Any patient aged 18 years or older can use the card to pay cash for about 2400 drugs. Prices follow a fixed formula that includes the Mark Cuban ingredient cost, plus a 15% markup, plus a $12 baseline dispensing fee, plus $1 for claims processing. The dispensing fee rises to $14 for cold chain and complex REMS drugs, and vaccines carry a $25 administration fee.

"We do not charge pharmacies for the privilege of filling our Team Cuban Card prescriptions," Albert said. "We reimburse them at Mark Cuban's actual acquisition cost of the drug, so we know we're never going to drown those pharmacies."

She contrasted this with traditional discount cards, which she called "essentially a race to the bottom," where "pharmacies can literally go underwater." With an estimated 20,000 pharmacies lost in the United States in recent years, she said, “We’ve got to figure out a way to keep these public health hubs alive and thriving."

Consistent Pricing, Flexible Supply

Ingredient costs change, and the drug list is updated weekly. Because every pharmacy uses the same formula, though, prices do not vary from store to store. "You're not going to go to one pharmacy and get one price and another pharmacy and get another price," Albert said.

The company also sets no day-supply limits of its own. "In theory, the patient could get up to 365 days' supply as long as state law allowed it and the provider allowed it," she said. Patients on a budget pay one dispensing fee for a larger fill.

Patients can find participating pharmacies by searching their zip code on TeamCubanCard.com. This fall, the directory will add whether each pharmacy offers delivery.

Enrollment and the Employer Market

Retail, community, and long-term care pharmacies can join by filling out a short online form. New pharmacies are onboarded at the start of each month. Albert said the bigger opportunity is putting the network's pricing into self-funded employer plans through partnerships with transparent pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). She expects that side of the business to "explode" in 2027 and beyond.

She pointed to recent lawsuits accusing plan sponsors of breaching their fiduciary duty. "It's transparent. It's very clear to understand. It's very traceable and auditable," Albert said. Traditional PBMs, she noted, rely on MAC lists that "can change day to day."

"I think we are headed to better times when it comes to more clarity [and] transparency," she said.

Team Cuban Card Form For Pharmacies