Prescription Drug Assistance Programs—Information You Can Use
By Mani Sanford of NAMI Michigan
For those who have lost or are losing prescription drug coverage from their CMH or other provider, there are other sources for prescription drug assistance. The NAMI National website says:
Some pharmaceutical companies offer medication assistance programs to low-income individuals and families. These programs typically require a doctor’s consent and proof of financial status. They may also require that you have either no health insurance or no prescription drug benefit through your health insurance. Please contact the pharmaceutical company directly for specific eligibility requirements and application information.
Note: Some of these companies may prefer to speak directly with your doctor.
All of this information can be viewed at the NAMI National web site at: www.nami.org.
First, what you need to do is go to the NAMI National Web site and scroll down on the right hand side of the page to the section below “NAMI Videos” to the red text which marks the “Inform Yourself” section and then single-click on the blue link “Medication and Treatment” which you will find below the blue “Inform Yourself” link next to “Policy Topics.”
Next, up comes a page entitled “About Treatment & Supports” in red and you single click on the first blue link “Medications.” On the page, in red, entitled “Medications” in the first subsection entitled “General Information about Medications,” you single click on the fourth blue link “Prescription Drug Assistance Program.”
Once you arrive at the page entitled “Patient Prescription Drug Assistance Programs” you can scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the Web Sites of three outstanding national programs. These are:
Partnership for Prescription Assistance
www.pparx.org
RxAssist: Accessing Pharmaceutical Patient Assistance Programs
www.rxassist.org
RxHope: The Heart of the Pharmaceutical Industry
www.rxhope.com
Each site will give you a way of enrolling in prescription assistance.
** “Disclaimer: this article is not an endorsement of any particular pharmaceutical company or its products. It is not intended as treatment information, but as a help for all people needing this information, that otherwise would not be able to access the medications that are recommended by their freely chosen physician.” —NAMI Michigan
