Prescription program to help area’s needy

For many people in South Louisiana, prescription drug coverage is either minimal or nonexistent, according to Ken Johnson. Early next week however, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance will visit many towns and cities across the southern half of the state to try and help ease the burden of high prescription costs for those who are under insured or not insured at all.

For over half a century there have been programs designed to help people in need receive free or extremely reduced rates on prescription drugs, according to Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

“In the past, if you were a person who needed multiple prescription drugs and you couldn’t afford it you would have had to call around 25 to 30 different companies to find out what kind of assistance was available,” Johnson said. “It was very frustrating and people didn’t know where to turn for help.”

Johnson said, “For more than 50 years companies have had patient assistance programs designed to help people in need. But, they tended to be confusing and were not very well advertised.”

In April 2005, PhRMA and 1,300 other state and national organizations launched the Partnership for Prescription Assistance program to make it easier for consumers to take advantage of the assistance that was available.

“We started PPA with the idea of taking the mystery out of finding help,” said Johnson.

PPA created an internal database that matches qualified participants to a number of programs which deliver free or reduced-rate prescription drugs.

People can take advantage of this service by visiting the “Help is Here” express touring bus.

The bus is equipped with 10 computer terminals, 10 portable phones and four to six PPA representatives to assist those who may come across any problems, according to Johnson.

“In essence, what we created is a one-stop-shop,” he said. “A single point-of-access to more than 475 patient assistance programs around the country.”

According to Johnson the process is simple. “It’s 10 easy questions. The most important being, ‘what medicines do you take?’ Then, in about ten minutes, we will have a pretty good idea of what you will qualify for,” Johnson said.

All of the programs have slightly different eligibility requirements. Most families of four whose household income falls below $36,000, and families of two whose household income falls below $25,000 meet all of the eligibility requirements, according to Johnson.

These programs are designed for people who make to much money to qualify for government assistance, but not enough money to afford quality health insurance, according to Johnson.

“These are people who are literally caught in the crack,” he said.

PPA has assisted over 2.8 million people nationwide receive free or reduced rate prescription drugs in the past year, according to PPA records.

Around 66,000 of them were from Louisiana alone. Johnson estimates that there are another 185,000 people in this state who would qualify.

This will be PPAs third time back to southern Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina. Each time the “Help is Here” bus travels to new areas trying to reach out assist as many people as possible, Johnson said.

On Monday PPA travel to Larose (from 9 a.m.-noon) and Thibodaux (from 3-5 p.m.), and on Friday, stops include Leeville (from 3-5 p.m.)

Jared Bailey can be reached at (985) 876-3008 or jared@tri-parishtimes.com