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Thinking outside the box is what most of us in Wimberley do. Whether it is music, painting or expressing ourselves in other ways is normal for residents of the valley. Maybe it’s the air or in the water, but it is there.

One 16-year Wimberley resident, and one time Wimberley Fire Department volunteer, has come up with a new way to purchase medical prescriptions that can even be a money saver. Zach Zeller was in the medical sales business. “For ten years I sold stuff to surgeons… over 80 surgeons from New Braunfels to Georgetown.” Then something happened that changed his life about 18 month ago.

“My wife said she was paying $44 a pill for her migraine medicine. The same pill was $2.99 for a pill. We were paying $1500 a month.” He figured there had to be a better way. Prescriptions can be marked up in price, even with a low wholesale price.

Taking a cue from Sam’s Club and Costco, big box stores saving money to those signed up and pay for a membership, perhaps that way, it could lower the price of prescriptions.

Last October, Scriptco came into being, the first membership pharmacy that makes a client’s cost a lot less. Here’s how it works. When signing up for a quarterly membership for $45 or a full year at $120, any medication that is bought, is bought at cost. They do not accept insurance.

“All our revenue is from membership,” Zach Zeller, Co-founder of Scriptco said. “We now have 170 plus members… The software had to come first, building the app to request refills, order history, no one else has that. Our app is fully functional, but you can also order over the phone… payment, connect with a pharmacist, how much each prescription costs, are just a few of the things the app can do.”

They have a 36,000 square foot warehouse that houses “robots that can fill the prescriptions in 40 seconds, with a picture is verified by a pharmacist that it is the correct pill.” Less people handling the prescriptions, means costs go down.

“Third party managers, pharmacy benefits managers determine co-pays. Wwhy? ...Most of their profits come from co-pays. They are the reason expenses are so high in America.” He continued. “At the present time we have only five employees, with the robots help, two pharmacy techs, a pharmacist, and two customer service techs.” One way to keep expenses down.

“Ninety percent of medicine dispensed by a pharmacist is generic, bought wholesale, and not expensive…at the website you can type in your generic medicine and get the price in real time. There are some instances (where we cannot save money) but we can supply 95% of 90% of the market.”

Personally his wife is saving $1800 a year and his father-in-law, $2800. Right now Scriptco is raising funds for marketing and “we’re trying to get the word out. They have five to seven minute Fox News story on their concept that will be aired in the near future.

“It is so much fun for us and life-changing for people… when they see what their medicine really costs,” Zeller said.

For more information or to join, see scriptco.com