“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 creator Biogen states. Biogen Idec offers assistance for prescription medicine 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 prescription drugs to out of a job patients who want prescription medication assistance. Maintain is only one of quite a lot of patient assistance programs that the company offers.
AstraZeneca just announced that it was changing its medicine assistance program to give assistance sooner to individual individuals. The company’s program offers free prescription drugs or low-cost medicine 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 patients had been having problems qualifying for prescription as their tax returns showed excessively high an income. Qualifying individuals can at the moment join by providing documentation of their present wages and family size, AstraZeneca said.
Paul Smith is a patient that has experienced such problems. The 43 -year-old Realtor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2003 . His income from social security and a minor disability policy just about covers his mortgage, medical bills, and other living expenses. “I have tried all sorts of things to check if I can find prescription medicine assistance,” he claims. He called the drug companies, Social Security, and his health care provider’s staff. He has moreover followed more than a few leads on the Internet and finally found a company that would deal with all of the paperwork for him.
His prescription medication cost over $20 a month and his medical costs are more than $300 per month. “There were times when I have had to skip taking my medicine for a day or two,” he admits. He is not positive what the future holds for him but at least at the moment he is in receipt of the assistance with prescriptions that he desires.
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