Prescription Drug Access
Well friends, we’re closing in on the winter holidays and the next thing you know, we’ll be welcoming 2006. I haven’t been updating this website much, and I feel badly about it, because web visitors generally like frequent updates and new information. As you would expect from a small business owner, I’ve been swamped with “work” and have never worked so hard in my life. The upside is that I enjoy my work very much. The downside is that I sometimes get sucked into the “busy-ness” and hardly have the mental energy for many other things I’d otherwise enjoy doing.
Here’s something that I wish I had time to investigate: Pharma companies’ patient assistant programs. Back in July of 2005 (right before this website went down from a server outage), I received an email from Ms. Carrie Maloney, a registered nurse, on behalf of a service called “Med Solutions“. Carrie wanted me to know that there is a service out there that helps patients get prescription drugs they need if they cannot afford to pay for the drugs. Med Solutions is a fee-for-service, which means you as a patient pay Med Solutions to help you get free drugs if you cannot afford to get the drugs for your medical condition.
I emailed Carrie this response:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Have you considered bringing this up to PhRMA? Or if you did, what response did you get if any?
PhRMA is the pharma industry’s lobbying group - its association. Having worked within the pharma industry, I’ve been beaten over the head with all the patient assistance programs that drug companies offer patients. In fact, I had even heard a keynote speech by Billy Tauzin (used to be a politician, now president of the association) talk about the importance of increasing awareness of pharma’s patient assistance efforts so that the public will know drug companies are helping those who can’t afford to pay gain access to the drugs that they need. When I heard Billy’s speech I felt very encouraged by pharma companies’ actions. I thought perhaps this was a first step to mending some serious credibility bridges that various pharma scandals have burned over the past few years.
Carrie wrote me back thus:
Thank you for taking the time to email us. We are very aware of the program funded by the Pharmaceutical Companies (PPARx) and obviously we would love to have some funding, as all cost in supporting our organization is coming out of our own private funds. We feel that PPARx is somewhat self-serving to the Pharmaceutical companies. For example I could enter the brand name “Prozac” I would then do a search choose that medication and enter personal information, ie age,income,etc., What is generated as resources is not correct. Support systems come up that this medication is available either through “Hawaii RX” ( which is the cost that the state pays) or Hawaii AIDS program (which of course you have to have aids). The manufacture of this medication is Eli Lilly which is a participating program of PPARx and it is available through Eli Lilly free under their PAP . Based upon the information I put in to the system it should have came up as a free medication through Eli Lilly. This happens with many of the medications, and if I wasn’t familiar with these programs and was a patient trying to get a honest resource, then I would understand that It was not available free. This happens with alot of the medications and within different Pharmaceutical companies. So we do not feel comfortable with PPARx as we feel that they are misleading the public. If you have any other input please do not hesitate to contact us.
Carrie should be commended for her due diligence and checking the PPARx system. I was very disappointed to hear that PhRMA is falling short of its valiant efforts by not implementing the system well. Many companies and organizations have very good intentions, but if these intentions are not done well, it wouldn’t help anybody.
At the time I wanted to investigate this further, for example, by asking PhRMA whether it has dispatched testers for its system to see how “user-friendly” its patient assistance program is. However, it’s still on my “to do” list!
If you’ve tried pharma companies’ patient assistance program and experienced what nurse Carrie was describing, please let me know.
Additionally, January 2006 is when Medicare Part D becomes effective, and supposedly offer those on Medicaid better access to prescription medication. From what I’ve read so far, trying to understand how to enroll in Part D may be harder than walking a tight-rope backwards with a cinder block strapped around your waist.
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