Prescription drugs can make it a lot easier to manage your health; but they can come with a huge price tag, leaving you burdened. Use of prescription drugs can also lead to many people depending on these medications.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, over the last 10 years, the percentage of Americans who took at least one prescription drug in the past month increased from 44 percent to 48 percent.
Have you heard of patient assistance programs?
Patient assistant programs have been around for a few decades but have gained popularity in recent years. There are also over 200 programs available that are run by pharmaceutical companies to make sure you are able to receive your medication at little to no cost.
The main criteria to get assistance from the patient assistant programs are a lack of prescription drug coverage and your income level. For instance, if you are single and make around $23,000-24,000 a year, you could qualify.
Emergency Medicine trained physician, Timothy McNamee, MD, joins Melanie Cole, MS, to discuss patient assistant programs, the services provided through these programs and the steps to take to apply for these programs.
Free Prescription Medications through Patient Assistance Programs
Have you suffered from paying too much for your prescription medications?
Additional Info
- Segment Number: 1
- Audio File: staying_well/1415sw1a.mp3
- Featured Speaker: Tim McNamee, MD
- Guest Website: RxAssist
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Guest Bio:
Timothy McNamee, M.D., is an Emergency Medicine trained physician who recognized while training and working in the emergency rooms of New York City the effects high prescription drug costs had on patients.
After leaving clinical medicine he entered another aspect of health care as an owner, administrator and developer of Assisted Living Facilities. It was here that he again discovered that one of the biggest issues affecting the physical and financial welfare of seniors was the high cost of prescription medications.
Dr McNamee and his staff actively sought out solutions to these problems and began helping his residents access free medications via the Patient Assistance Programs (PAP's).
It soon began obvious that although these programs existed, most people required an advocate and proper guidance to successfully complete the process.
In 2002, Rx Assistance was formed to to organize, streamline and assist the many needy individuals in accessing these valuable PAP programs.
Since that time, Rx Assistance has worked with well over 10,000 clients to help them achieve prescription drug cost savings of over twenty five million dollars ($25,000,000.00). - Length (mins): 10
- Waiver Received: Yes
- Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Published in
Staying Well
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