Making Healthcare More Human: Fillex CEO Dain Rusk Featured on Health Uncensored with Dr. Drew
- Fillex
- May 18
- 6 min read
How zero-capital central fulfillment solves the “triple threat” facing modern pharmacy
Fillex CEO Dain Rusk was recently featured on the national TV program Health Uncensored with Dr. Drew, a series dedicated to exploring the most innovative solutions in modern healthcare.
4 Minute Watch | Jump to Transcript
In This Interview
Pharmacies are facing rising costs, PBM reimbursement pressure, and labor shortages
Fillex shifts prescription production out of the store and into automated fulfillment centers
The model removes the traditional financial burden, offering a sustainable, per-prescription cost-to-fill
How can a pharmacy remain financially viable while spending more time with patients? It’s a question at the heart of a recent interview on Health Uncensored with Dr. Drew, featuring Fillex CEO Dain Rusk.
During the segment, Dr. Drew and Dain discuss a startling statistic: pharmacists spend up to 46% of their day physically sorting and dispensing medication. This manual burden contributes to what Dain calls a “triple threat” facing the industry: skyrocketing operational costs, complex reimbursement challenges, and a nationwide labor shortage. Together, these pressures create a critical shortfall in the one thing pharmacists and patients need most: time.
A Business Model for Pharmacy Sustainability
While technology serves as the engine, Fillex’s groundbreaking model makes central fulfillment viable for all. As Dain explains, Fillex has removed the traditional financial barriers to central fill by absorbing the capital risk.
Through a strategic partnership with global investment firm Morrison, Fillex builds and manages high-tech central fulfillment facilities with no capital or operational expense to the pharmacy.
By offering shared and dedicated facilities with a per-prescription cost-to-fill model, providers of any size can modernize and remain viable without the risk of massive upfront investment.
The 175-Mile Logic
Speed is a primary concern for any pharmacy looking to outsource fulfillment. During the interview, Dain describes Fillex’s “175-mile logic” — a strategic geographic footprint designed to ensure prescriptions are returned to the pharmacy or delivered to the patient next-day, or at a minimum, within two days. This proximity allows Fillex to provide the speed of a local pharmacy with the precision and efficiency of a national network.
A Profession at a Crossroads
The human cost of the current pharmacy model has reached a breaking point. Dain shares that 66% of pharmacists report being burned out, leading many to feel disenfranchised with the profession.
By pulling “non-clinical events” like counting pills and bottling medication out of the store, Fillex allows pharmacists to find their way back to their true calling: providing the high-touch, clinical care that matters most to patients.
Making Healthcare More Human
Dr. Drew recalls a familiar scene: a pharmacist attempting to provide counsel while simultaneously typing on the computer and dispensing medication. In this environment, the pharmacist is overworked and the patient experience suffers.
The Fillex model changes this dynamic by freeing the pharmacist to be largely customer-facing. When production is handled off-site, patients receive their medication with higher accuracy while gaining the dedicated, face-to-face attention of a healthcare provider who is available for consultations and personalized care.
The Future of Community Pharmacy
The shift toward zero-capital central fulfillment is essential to community pharmacy’s survival. Historically, advanced fulfillment has been reserved for the industry’s largest players, leaving independent and mid-size pharmacies to manage rising costs, staffing pressure, and operational complexity on their own.
As this “triple threat” forces more community pharmacies to shutter their doors, the pharmacy desert crisis deepens — especially for vulnerable patients who rely on local access to medication.
The interview with Dr. Drew underscores a pivotal shift: as Fillex expands its national network, more pharmacies gain access to a model that allows them to remain accessible and financially viable within their communities.
By shedding the burden of manual production, pharmacists can practice at the top of their license and reinvest their energy where it belongs: the patient relationship.
" Our vision at Fillex is to create a world where pharmacies are financially viable, operationally efficient, but wholly dedicated to patient care." – Dain Rusk, CEO
Video Transcript
Dr. Drew: If you had to guess, how much time do you think pharmacists spend just physically sorting and dispensing medication? Maybe 20% of their day?
Actually, studies show it's closer to half their day — up to 46%. And that's precious time. Fulfillment, of course, is crucial to a pharmacy, but it shouldn't come at the cost of helping patients.
My next guest just might have the solution. Join me in welcoming the CEO of Fillex, Dain Rusk.
So this seems really interesting to me — technological solutions to a problem that every pharmacist must face.
Dain Rusk: I call it the “triple threat” today — and that is, pharmacists are dealing with high operational costs, challenges in reimbursement from pharmacy benefit managers, and a labor shortage.
When you couple all that together, what pharmacies are really experiencing is a shortfall in time.
Dr. Drew: So how does automation solve this? What does it do?
Dain Rusk: What it really does is pull that production out of stores.
As you alluded to in your opening, half their time is being spent on what I call non-clinical events — counting pills, putting them in a bottle. Those types of efforts are things we can pull out of the pharmacy, automate, and really give pharmacists what they crave most — time.
Dr. Drew: How does your technology solve the mix of online pharmacy and in-store pharmacy?
Dain Rusk: I would say we're agnostic — meaning we want to support all versions of pharmacy.
By pulling that production out and automating it in a way that's very quick and accurate, we can provide medication either directly back to the consumer or back to the pharmacy for dispensing.
Dr. Drew: Tell me about the 175-mile logic. Explain that to me.
Dain Rusk: The 175-mile logic is really about the distance needed to get prescriptions back next day — or at minimum within two days.
Dr. Drew: Will patients experience anything different? What's the user experience going to be like?
Dain Rusk: I think the user experience is going to be better.
What happens is we've pulled production out of the store and allowed the pharmacist to be customer-facing — to provide the clinical services that really matter most.
Dr. Drew: Do pharmacists have to pay a fee to get involved with this?
Dain Rusk: They do not. That’s the beauty of our business and what makes us unique.
We’ve partnered with a company called Morrison Global, which allows us to build these facilities at no capital expense to pharmacies — and no operational expense.
We build them, manage them, and provide a cost-to-fill back on a per-prescription basis.
Dr. Drew: I'm kind of laughing to myself because I'm thinking about my own experiences at the pharmacy. I feel bad for the pharmacist — they’re trying to talk to me while working on the computer and dispensing at the same time. They're doing three things at once.
Dain Rusk: Pharmacists have become really disenfranchised with the profession. There’s a study that says 66% are burned out right now.
Dr. Drew: Any clinician.
Dain Rusk: That’s exactly right. So you see enrollment down in schools because of it.
Dr. Drew: Of course. But there are technological solutions — and this is what I like about solutions like yours.
There are ways to accommodate this so both the patient can continue to receive proper care, and the pharmacist can find their way back to their profession.
Dain Rusk: Our vision at Fillex is to create a world where pharmacies are financially viable, operationally efficient, but wholly dedicated to customer and patient care.
That’s what really matters to us.
Dr. Drew: Thanks for bringing us a solution on behalf of both providers and patients. We appreciate it.
It’s a fascinating look at how automation can make healthcare more human. Learn more about how Fillex is transforming prescription fulfillment — visit fillexrx.com.
About Fillex
Fillex is an independent, national central fulfillment network designed for the next generation of prescription fulfillment. Through an open-access model, Fillex provides pharmacy providers with scalable infrastructure to expand capacity, improve operational efficiency, and protect margins without the need for upfront capital investment.
Fillex partners with retail pharmacies, health systems, grocery chains, and digital providers to deliver flexible fulfillment solutions, including both shared network environments and dedicated facilities. By removing the complexity of building and managing fulfillment infrastructure, Fillex enables pharmacy providers to direct more of their resources toward clinical services and patient care.
