What One Man Did To Receive His Help For Prescriptions
The current financial downturn has affected a lot of people’s power to pay for their prescriptions. Some prescription medicine companies are responding with superior help for prescriptions. Merck, which produces Singulair for asthma, Januvia for diabetes and Fosamax for osteoporosis, increased the amount of total yearly income a family can make and yet become certified for free prescription drugs in March. Citizens making lower than $43,000 and families of four making lower than $88,000 at the present can meet the requirements for help for prescriptions. Merck says it has helped 1.7 million patients with $1.8 billion of drugs over the last seven years.
“We are committed to helping patients, and that commitment is evident in the $140 million of financial assistance we provided in 2008,” representative Shannon Altimari from drug maker Biogen says. Biogen Idec provides assistance for prescription Avonex and Tysabri which is used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Pfizer announced a program at an earlier time this year called Maintain that provides free help for prescriptions to non working individuals who want prescription drug help. Maintain is just one of numerous patient assistance programs that the manufacturer administers.
AstraZeneca just announced that it was changing its prescription medication assistance program to provide aid quicker to selected patients. The company’s program offers at no cost drugs or low-cost prescription drugs to uninsured, low-income individuals. AstraZeneca said in a statement that it “would immediately extend assistance to qualifying patients who have lost their jobs, had their incomes reduced or had a change in marital status or family size”. The manufacturer said these types of individuals had been having problems qualifying for prescription as their tax returns showed exceedingly high an income. Qualifying people can at this instant join by providing documentation of their present salary and family size, AstraZeneca said.
Bill Landes is a patient that has experienced such troubles. The 60 -year-old cook was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002 . His pay from social security and a small disability policy just covers his mortgage, medical bills, and other living expenses. “I have tried all sorts of things to establish if I can obtain prescription medicine assistance,” he claims. He called the prescription drug companies, Social Security, and his health care provider’s personnel. He has as well followed quite a lot of leads on the Internet and finally found a company that would administer all of the red tape for him.
His drug cost over $375 a month and his healthcare costs are more than $475 per month. “There were times when I have had to skip taking my prescription medicine for a day or two,” he admits. He is not positive what the future holds for him but at least at this instant he is getting the help for prescriptions that he wants.
