| Program
helps the needy get discounted medications
by Marjolijn Bijlefeld
Virginia Business
May 2005
Drug companies offer more than
100 free or reduced-price prescription drug programs. “But it’s almost
impossible for people to access them because each has
different eligibility requirements and different forms,” says
Marilyn Maxwell, executive director of Mountain Empire
Older Citizens, the area agency on aging which serves
Virginia’s most southwestern counties.
With a grant from the Virginia
Health Care Foundation (VHCF), the agency developed
a software package that
provided access to these myriad programs in one source.
But the agency learned that software alone wasn’t
enough. The job was too big and so was the need. The
region has the highest number of medically indigent
and uninsured people in the commonwealth, Maxwell says.
So four years ago, with a
$370,000 allocation from the General Assembly, the
agency and its partners in
the community created Pharmacy Connect of Southwest
Virginia, putting software and dedicated staff in 15
sites in the region. These sites include local hospitals,
community health clinics, health departments and program
offices for persons with disabilities. Doctors direct
patients to bring their prescriptions to a Pharmacy
Connect worker. The worker then helps the patient fill
out the enrollment and eligibility forms and completes
the income verification or other requirements. Different
prescriptions might come from different companies,
so it’s not unusual to apply to four or five
programs for each patient. The prescriptions are sent
to the health-care provider’s office, where the
patient picks them up.
The result: “In four years of operation we
have accessed more than $40 million of prescription
drugs. In the past year, for each dollar the state
put in, we have brought in close to $40 from the private
sector,” Maxwell says.
The program isn’t designed to help patients
receive same-day antibiotics, but it has helped patients
with chronic conditions to manage them with the proper
medication. “We’re keeping people from
getting sicker and ending up in the emergency room.
Many of these are people who are working hard but don’t
have health insurance,” she says.
The University of Appalachia School of Pharmacy in
Grundy is joining the effort by sending staff members
to conduct follow-up medication counseling, either
on site or via video conferencing, she says.
With another General Assembly
allocation, the VHCF is now making this a statewide
program. Maxwell realizes
that as more people tap into pharmaceutical manufacturer’s
programs, it might restrict the flow of free drugs
to her region. “Some people said, ‘Let’s
keep it in the closet.’ But this is the only
game in town for medically indigent people. If the
pharmaceutical companies change course, we’ll
have to change course and come up with another solution.”
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