Susan is living with a chronic condition and uses her Pharmacy Liaison and her hospital specialty pharmacy’s services on a regular basis. She recently called up her Liaison for a different reason though. She spoke to her about the issues that her mother, who doesn’t use the hospital specialty pharmacy, was having with her medications recently. Susan told her Liaison that her elderly mother struggles each month to afford her inhalers and blood thinners. This month, Susan’s mother told her that she had to choose between picking up the inhaler, which was over $300 due to her deductible, or filling her blood thinner medication.

The Liaison couldn’t sit by and watch as a patient had to choose between two lifesaving medicines that she needed, so she gathered the mother’s financial information and applied for a grant for the inhaler. Within minutes, Susan’s mother was approved for $1,600 in financial assistance for her inhaler, which will cover the costs for the entire year. The Liaison called Susan and informed her of the good news and told her that if the cost of her medication happens to increase at all this year, then the Liaison can reapply for a second grant.

Susan’s mother was able to pick up her inhaler at no cost and her blood thinners that same day and was very relieved she didn’t need to choose one or the other. Susan’s mother was in tears on the phone with her daughter that day saying, “This is truly life changing. I can’t thank this Liaison enough for taking care of me even when I’m not a patient there. I put my medicine on auto-refill because I finally know that I’ll be able to afford it every month. I was told I would have to pay $370 for this inhaler and now I’m walking out of the pharmacy with my inhaler for $0. Truly life changing.”