Our patient assistance programs have been a tremendous blessing from God. We have used them to help the uninsured and the under-insured in our community. Through the various programs that have been instituted here, we have saved our community over a million dollars. Our current programs include financial assistance to those in the Medicare Gap, working with the uninsured from the Sheep Clinic, along with our low cost medication list, and our newest program is our Essential Pharmacy plan.
Helping those in the Medicare Gap
We have a financial aid program set in place by our board of directors designed to specifically help those that fall into the Medicare Gap, regardless of financial income. We believe that the Medicare Gap (aka, Doughnut Hole) is something that is inherently wrong to do to our senior citizens. When one’s prescription costs suddenly skyrocket in a difficult to predict manner it is unjust. This program is intended to help people afford their medications while they are in the Gap.
Our program offers up to $100 of financial assistance on each prescription filled while someone is in the Medicare Gap, but not taking them below their original copay. There are some caveats on that, such as we do not subsidize narcotics (oxycodone, morphine, etc.), and we do not subsidize benzodiazepines (alprazolam, diazepam, etc). Also, to be good stewards of the funds we raise to help people afford their medications, our board of directors requires that people wanting assistance would continue to use us all the time, even when they are not in the Medicare Gap.
Being good shepherds
Our programs to help the uninsured involves a combination of us selling medications at cost, and working with the Sheep Clinic. Uninsured patients that utilize the Sheep Clinic can get many of their scripts filled for free. Their physicians and other health care providers are aware of the costs of most meds and will work with us to try and come up with affordable therapies.
Becoming the Essential Pharmacy
Sometimes a pharmacy plan will refer to a particular pharmacy (or pharmacy chain) as a preferred pharmacy. We have decided that we want to be more than that. We want to be an Essential Pharmacy. We have identified a number of medications that we want everyone to be able to afford regardless of what insurance plan they have. The following list of medications are free to anyone that uses our pharmacy, even if they don’t have insurance at all:
- Amlodipine
- Atorvastatin
- Citalopram
- Furosemide
- Hydrochlorothiazide
- Lisinopril
- Metformin 500 mg or 1000 mg
- Metoprolol tartrate
- Sertraline
- Simvastatin
While we reserve the right to continue to evaluate this list throughout the year, we are anticipating giving away many thousands of these prescriptions for free and we hope to grow this list over time to include even more medications
We appreciate all the people in the community that utilize us as their regular pharmacy even when they don’t need assistance as it helps us to be here for everyone. If you have further questions about our programs, fell free to call us at (412) 243-1369 or use our contact form.
