A sore throat on a holiday weekend. A child with an earache during a lake visit. A urinary tract infection that starts after the doctor’s office has closed. A lingering sinus infection.
Too often, illness strikes when there is no available appointment, no time to miss work and no practical alternative to an expensive urgent care or emergency room visit.
Dr. Tod Stillson has seen those situations for more than 30 years. As a longtime board-certified family physician in Marshall County, he has cared for newborns, children, parents, grandparents, workers, farmers, students and families simply trying to get through the week. He has delivered babies, practiced full-scope rural family medicine and built the kind of trust that comes from decades of showing up for people.
That spirit of service has extended beyond his own community as well. Tod has traveled to areas where maternity care is at risk, helping hospitals and families in places where access to physicians is fragile. His willingness to serve in those places says much about the kind of doctor he has always tried to be — one who does not simply talk about need, but steps toward it.
Now, through ChatRx, he is working to make common acute medical care faster, easier and more affordable.
“I’m on a mission to democratize healthcare,” Tod says. “The system is broken.”
ChatRx is an on-demand urgent care service that allows patients to start a free symptom assessment on their phone any time, day or night. If the condition can be treated through the platform, a licensed provider reviews the case, determines the appropriate treatment plan and, when medically necessary, sends a prescription to the patient’s chosen pharmacy. The cost is a flat $25.
There are no appointments, no waiting rooms, no insurance billing and no surprise charges.
For Lakes West readers, that convenience may be especially meaningful. Many local residents live busy lives filled with work, family, school, caregiving and community responsibilities. Many visitors come to the lakes for weekends, vacations, family gatherings and summer memories. Illness, unfortunately, does not politely wait until Monday morning.
Tod thinks about the family visiting from Fort Wayne, Chicago, Detroit or Indianapolis whose weekend is suddenly interrupted by strep throat, swimmer’s ear, pink eye, bronchitis or a UTI. He also thinks about small-business owners, workers without health insurance, college students, busy professionals and parents who cannot easily take time off work for a relatively common infection.
For busy families and working adults, avoiding the cost of a visit is only part of the benefit. ChatRx can also reduce lost work time, travel and the disruption that often accompanies an in-person appointment.
“If you can get it done instantly, in 10 minutes on your phone, and the prescription sent to your local pharmacy, just think of how much time you bought back from your vacation,” Tod says.
The process begins with a free symptom assessment. Patients create a free account and enter information about what they are experiencing. The platform gathers symptoms, medical history, medications and allergies. The technology helps organize information efficiently, but Tod is very clear about one important point: Artificial intelligence does not replace the doctor.
All medical decisions are made by licensed providers.
ChatRx currently treats 39 common conditions, including respiratory illnesses, sinus infections, bronchitis, UTIs, strep throat, swimmer’s ear, pink eye, tooth infections, certain skin infections, shingles, tick-bite prophylaxis for Lyme disease risk and other common acute concerns. It can also identify when the platform is not the right fit.
That safety feature matters. If symptoms suggest an emergency, ChatRx directs the patient to seek urgent in-person care. If the illness appears viral and does not require medication, the patient is told that up front. If the condition requires a face-to-face visit, the platform guides the patient in that direction.
“We know our lane,” Tod says.
That lane is common acute care delivered quickly and affordably. It is not designed to manage diabetes, chronic disease, emergencies or complex conditions requiring in-person evaluation. It is designed to answer the questions patients often have first: Where should I go? When can I be seen? How much will it cost?
Tod’s approach turns the traditional medical visit upside down. In many healthcare settings, patients provide payment information first, wait to be seen and may later learn the illness was viral or did not require prescription treatment. With ChatRx, patients begin with a free assessment. They only pay the $25 fee if they choose to move forward with treatment through the platform.
“I reverse-engineered it,” Tod says. “I’m going to tell you for free whether you need treatment, and then if you do, I’m going to tell you what it costs.”
The $25 fee includes provider evaluation, a treatment plan, prescription processing when appropriate and a work or school note for the patient being treated. Medication costs are paid separately to the pharmacy. ChatRx can send prescriptions to major chains or local independent pharmacies, and the service also provides access to pharmacy discount options that may help reduce medication costs.
For caregivers, a separate caregiver absence note is available for $10 when someone misses work to care for a sick child or dependent.
Long before ChatRx became a medical platform, its heart was already taking shape in a boy from Bremen who understood working-class life from the inside. Tod grew up in a family where no one before him had gone to college. His parents gave him enduring foundations that cannot be measured on a transcript or medical degree. They gave him love, security and the belief that anything was possible.
That gift stayed with him.
Tod first imagined becoming a hometown pharmacist after seeing the care Al Molebash of Al’s Pharmacy in Bremen provided. He admired the way an independent pharmacist could become woven into the life of a community. He saw someone who knew people by name, understood their needs and served as a trusted part of everyday life.
He went to pharmacy school with the idea that he might someday return to serve a small Indiana town. A mission experience in Niger changed that path. While working in a mission hospital pharmacy, he felt called to become a doctor. He applied to Indiana University School of Medicine and was accepted before completing an undergraduate degree.
“I thought I was going to come back to deliver healthcare as a pharmacist,” Tod says. “I actually came back to deliver healthcare as a doctor.”
That sense of calling still informs his work. Tod says his faith shapes his desire to care for people who are sick, underserved or overlooked. His concern for rural communities is not theoretical. He has practiced in them. He has watched patients wait too long because cost, transportation, work schedules or lack of appointments stood in the way.
[Text Wrapping Break]He has also seen what happens when rural communities lose access to essential care, including maternity care, and he has given his own time and energy to help keep those doors open in places that need physicians.
“My motivation is the blue-collar people who live in rural areas,” Tod says. “The real people who need real solutions.”
ChatRx is headquartered in Plymouth, not on one of the coasts where many technology-driven healthcare companies begin. Tod sees that as intentional.
“This is something that you would find on the coast, in San Francisco or Boston, not in rural America, rural Indiana,” he says. “I’ve chosen to headquarter this in my home community, my home county, our home place.”
That local foundation is part of the trust Tod wants to preserve as ChatRx grows. The platform currently operates in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, with plans for broader expansion. Schools, pharmacies, small businesses and college health programs are among the groups demonstrating strong interest in the platform and its potential applications.
For schools, ChatRx may offer a practical way to help families when a child becomes sick during the day. For independent pharmacies, it may allow patients to scan a QR code, complete an assessment and potentially have a prescription sent to that same pharmacy within minutes. For small businesses, it may provide an affordable healthcare resource for employees when traditional insurance is too costly.
Tod says ChatRx has already had more than 4,000 users, more than 5,000 assessments or encounters and more than 1,500 prescriptions issued. He emphasizes that the platform is not an antibiotic vending machine. Treatment decisions follow medical guidelines, and antibiotics are prescribed only when medically appropriate.
One story that stayed with him involved a granddaughter visiting from out of state over Memorial Day weekend. She became ill, and her family suspected strep throat. Instead of losing the weekend to confusion, waiting or a costly urgent care visit, they used ChatRx and had treatment arranged quickly.
That is exactly the kind of situation Tod had in mind.
A medical problem may begin with discomfort, worry and inconvenience. ChatRx is designed to meet that moment with clarity, affordability and speed. For the parent at home, the worker without time to spare, the student away at college or the lake visitor hoping to save the weekend, it offers something simple but powerful.
Care can begin right from the phone in your hand.
ChatRx represents modern technology being used for one of its finest purposes — helping people feel better, make wise choices and reach trusted medical care when they need it most. Behind the platform is not a distant corporation or an anonymous system, but a highly qualified local physician with more than three decades of experience, a deep understanding of rural healthcare and a humble, service-oriented heart.
While ChatRx is built on modern technology, its purpose is rooted in something deeper: a physician’s desire to remove barriers, ease burdens and help people receive care when they need it most.
For the people of Plymouth, Marshall County, the Lakes West area and beyond, ChatRx offers more than convenience. It offers reassurance that when illness interrupts life, help may be closer than ever.
ChatRx
Dr. Tod Stillson
328 S. Michigan St.
Plymouth, IN 46563
574-933-2634
tstillson@chatrx.net
