Is Optum Perks Legit? Who Owns It and How It Makes Money

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• Optum Perks is a legitimate prescription discount program run by Optum Perks, LLC, part of RVO Health, which UnitedHealth Group listed among its subsidiaries at the end of 2024.¹ The card and coupons are free, with no sign-up.
• Pharmacies pay Optum Perks a fee each time a card is used.² It also sells or shares some browsing data for targeted ads and charges for extras such as $39 Online Care visits.³
• West Virginia’s attorney general named Optum Perks in a 2025 opioid lawsuit against UnitedHealth and Optum. The claims are unproven, and the case is pending.⁴

Optum Perks is a free prescription coupon service, and it’s legitimate. It’s run by Optum Perks, LLC, an RVO Health company that UnitedHealth Group listed as a subsidiary at the end of 2024. The coupons cost nothing, and you don’t need an account or any personal details to use one. The pharmacy pays Optum Perks a fee when you use a coupon, which keeps the service free. The price at the counter may differ from the coupon, and you can’t combine the discount with insurance. The website also shares some health-related browsing data with advertisers.

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Who owns Optum Perks?

Optum Perks, LLC, is the company behind the card, which the site describes as an RVO Health company. RVO Health started in 2022 as a joint venture between UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and the media company Red Ventures. It combined Optum’s consumer brands, Optum Perks included, with Red Ventures’ Healthline Media and Healthgrades.⁵ UnitedHealth Group’s 2024 annual filing with the SEC lists both RVO Health, LLC and Optum Perks LLC among its subsidiaries as of December 31, 2024.¹ We found no published figure for how ownership is split between Optum and Red Ventures.Healthline ranks Optum Perks among the best prescription discounts, and both belong to RVO Health, so the ranking comes from a sister company.

How Optum Perks works

You search for your medication on the website or app, see prices at nearby pharmacies, and show the coupon to the pharmacist. Optum Perks says this can cut the price by up to 80%, and its homepage says users saved $396 on average in 2025. The about page says 18.6 million people have used the card and more than 64,000 pharmacies accept it.⁶ Prices vary a lot between pharmacies. For a 30-day supply of generic sertraline (50 mg), for example, the site showed $5.93 at Walmart and $23.02 at the CVS inside Target in September 2026. Our Optum Perks review has a full price table for common psychiatric medications and a walk-through of the site.The program is not insurance, and prices can change. You can use Optum Perks with insurance or Medicare, but you can’t combine them in one purchase, and coupon spending doesn’t count toward your deductible. Optum Perks itself says insurance usually gives the lower price.⁶

How Optum Perks makes money

The card is free to you. Optum Perks earns from pharmacy fees, advertising, and paid services.

Pharmacies pay a fee each time a card is used

Optum Perks’ blog says a discount card company negotiates prices with pharmacies, and the pharmacy pays the company every time someone uses the card.² Its help center adds that it uses the negotiating power of Optum Rx, a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) in the same corporate family, to get those prices. Optum Perks doesn’t publish how much each fee is.The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy explained in October 2025 that at the point of sale, the pharmacy pays a transaction fee to the PBM, and part of that fee goes to the discount card company.⁷ That explanation covers discount cards in general and does not name Optum. With Optum Perks, the PBM and card program are in the same company group, and how any fee is divided between them is not public.This fee is why some pharmacies are less keen on discount cards. Pharmacists in user forums describe each card claim as costing the store money, though at least one says Optum Perks’ fees are sometimes lower than GoodRx’s.

Selling or sharing browsing data for advertising

Optum Perks’ privacy notice, last updated December 23, 2025, says that in the past 12 months it has “sold” or “shared” (as the California Consumer Privacy Act defines those terms) personal information with marketing and advertising vendors for targeted ads.³ The categories include identifiers, browsing activity such as searches and page views, and, where the pages or search terms reveal it, information about your health. The notice names Meta and LinkedIn as examples of these vendors. It also states that Optum Perks may sell your sensitive personal information.Searching the site for a medication can tell ad partners something about your health, and RVO Health can share your information across its brands. The notice doesn’t say what Optum Perks earns from this.You can limit it. The “Your Privacy Choices” link in the site footer switches off selling, sharing and targeted-ad cookies for that browser, and a separate form covers other sales of your data. The site ignores Do Not Track signals but recognizes the Global Privacy Control setting that some browsers offer.³

Paid Online Care and prescription delivery

Online Care costs $39 per prescription request, and the medication itself is extra.⁸ Prescription delivery charges the drug price plus $5 to $20 for shipping, depending on speed.Online Care is for adults and uses US-based, board-certified clinicians. Its refill visit covers anxiety and depression medications but not controlled substances. If your concern can’t be handled online and you’re sent to a clinic, you aren’t charged.This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or licensed clinician before starting, stopping, or changing any treatment.

Lawsuits, regulators and data breaches

We found no FTC action, class action or data breach against Optum Perks itself as of September 28, 2026. Optum cases in the news, such as the FTC’s insulin case against Optum Rx and the 2024 Change Healthcare ransomware attack, concern other parts of the company.In December 2025, West Virginia’s attorney general sued UnitedHealth Group and several Optum companies, including Optum Perks, LLC, in federal court over the opioid crisis.⁴ The state alleges that Optum’s discount and cash cards let people fill opioid prescriptions outside the safety checks that insurance plans use, and that Optum collected fees on those claims. These are allegations, and none have been proven. The case is pending, with a jury trial set for January 2028.⁹ No other lawsuit naming Optum Perks was found.The AARP prescription discount card is run by a different Optum company, so complaints about that card don’t apply to Optum Perks.

What users say about Optum Perks

Optum Perks rates 4.8 out of 5 from 3,800 ratings on Apple’s App Store and 4.3 from 1,180 reviews on Google Play, where the app has over 500,000 downloads as of September 2026. Trustpilot has no Optum Perks profile, and we found no BBB profile for it. The low Trustpilot scores under the Optum and Optum Rx names cover other Optum businesses.The most common praise is about price. Reviewers often say Optum Perks beat GoodRx on their drugs, though others found GoodRx cheaper. Frequent users in forums say no single card is cheapest for every drug, so they compare several.The most common complaint is that the counter price doesn’t match the coupon. Reviewers say they pay a few dollars more, or in some cases two or three times the listed price, and are told the prices aren’t guaranteed. App reliability comes next, with saved coupons that stop working or searches that hang. Online Care reviews are mixed, with praise for fast refills and a few complaints about the prescribing.Pharmacists broadly accept discount programs. In a 2020 survey of 240 US pharmacies published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, as cited by Optum Perks’ blog, 91.7% of pharmacists said prescription discount programs are legitimate and useful.¹⁰

How to tell a real discount card from a scam

The real Optum Perks card is free and needs no credit card or personal information. Optum Perks’ own advice is that a legitimate discount card doesn’t charge you or ask for personal details.¹⁰ The Georgia Attorney General’s consumer protection office says you shouldn’t pay any fees for a discount card.¹¹ In 2014, the FTC stopped marketers who charged $299 for prescription discount cards that were free elsewhere and typically gave no discount to people with insurance.¹² We found no scam warnings specific to Optum Perks. If anyone asks you to pay for an Optum Perks card, or for payment details to get one, walk away.To check you’re dealing with the real service, use the website perks.optum.com, which works only in the US, or the apps published by Optum Inc. The card and coupon help line is 1-866-407-8901, and Optum Perks sends texts only after you opt in.

Who should use Optum Perks?

Optum Perks suits people paying cash for a prescription, whether they have no insurance or a plan that doesn’t cover their drug. No card is cheapest every time, so check it alongside another card before you fill. Our guide to what generic Lexapro costs has more on paying cash for one common antidepressant.It’s a weaker fit if your insurance copay is already low or you want your spending to count toward your deductible. Online Care won’t help with controlled substances such as ADHD stimulants, and each $39 visit covers a single prescription request. If you have insurance and want a psychiatrist to manage your medication over time, an insurance-based psychiatry service such as Talkiatry may fit better.If you’re paying cash for a prescription, you can compare Optum Perks prices for your medication before you go to the pharmacy.

Safety notes and what to do when a coupon fails

Optum Perks is a discount service, and its homepage and Online Care pages made no mention of emergency or crisis support when we checked in September 2026. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or call 911.If the counter price doesn’t match your coupon, ask the pharmacist to run a price check with the numbers on the front of the coupon before you pay, as Optum Perks recommends. If the pharmacy still can’t match it, call Optum Perks’ 24/7 pharmacist help line at 1-866-407-8901 or email perks_support@rvohealth.com. Online Care has its own line at 866-714-3330.When you’re ready, you can get a free Optum Perks coupon and show it at your next fill.