Winning with Efficiency: Rightway’s Secret to Smarter Software Spending

About Rightway

Rightway is revolutionizing care navigation and pharmacy benefit management. In 2023, the New-York based company grew its members by 255% and is trusted by companies like Tyson Foods to provide flexible pharmacy benefits for their employees.

Xavier Del Rosario is the VP of Finance and Business Operations at Rightway, where he leads the Finance, Accounting, and People functions. Prior to joining Rightway, he led finance and operations at multiple early-stage startups en route to raising millions in funding.

The Challenge

Limited time, limited resources: Rightway struggled to streamline purchasing and gain control of spend

Transforming the pharmacy benefits space is no easy task. As a fast-moving startup, Rightway needed to grow with a lean and efficient team. 

Del Rosario needed visibility into their $3 million annual software spend but didn’t have the dedicated resources to develop and manage a procurement process. 

“I wanted to make sure that we could purchase software prudently and start off with a solid foundation from a negotiation standpoint,” Del Rosario said. “We don't have a dedicated resource to manage our procurement — but I wanted consistency and confidence that a process would be followed.”

The Solution

Leverage Tropic’s trusted procurement team and unbiased data for more effective negotiations

Tropic’s team of negotiation experts handles thousands of negotiations with key software suppliers. Each negotiation adds to Tropic’s unbiased data set, which comes in handy to negotiate the most cost-effective option for Rightway.

Although Rightway briefly managed their software procurement in-house, Del Rosario felt comfortable trusting Tropic to handle the nuances of their software contract negotiations. Tropic’s negotiation team has saved Rightway hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, including 48% savings on a renewing Guru contract.

“Tropic’s negotiation team brings a proven playbook and deep visibility into pricing and renewal rates across multiple companies,” Del Rosario said. “Although I can directionally navigate these conversations, Tropic's insights, experience, and credibility gives me great confidence that we're getting the best possible price.”

Use Tropic to enforce risk management review when buying software

With Tropic, Rightway controls their spend by putting purchase controls in place and reduces their spend by relying on Tropic’s expert negotiation team.   

Because the healthcare space is vulnerable to information hacks and data breaches, it’s important that potential software tools are properly vetted to meet Rightway’s infosec needs. 

Purchase requests are routed through Tropic’s configurable workflows, assigning reviews to the Rightway security team in the initial stages, allowing them to flag any potential concerns early on.

“With PHI requirements and HIPAA regulations, we need to bring in security to do their due diligence up front,” Del Rosario added. “Tropic puts controls in place to keep our requirements in mind and makes sure that we are passing the sniff test for our internal security team.” 

The Outcome 

Reduce the manual procurement work and free up time for more strategic priorities

Handling the new purchase or renewal process often requires meticulous manual back-and-forth communication. By trusting Tropic to readily prepare and manage the negotiation process, Rightway’s team gets an estimated 200 hours per year of time back each month.

Del Rosario says that time is spent toward a different type of negotiation - driving down better pharmacy rates so patients can readily access the medications they need.

“This year will process $500 million in drug spend,” Del Rosario added. “We trust Tropic to manage our software negotiations effectively to keep us lean, and then we can keep our focus on combating the rising costs of healthcare.”