Lisa was recently diagnosed with cancer and faced the reality of her new illness, upcoming treatment and extreme financial burden. After meeting with her doctor about her treatment plan, she was prescribed a medication that had a co-pay of over $2,000 a month. Lisa knew she would not be able to afford the medication. Luckily she met with her Pharmacy Liaison that day to discuss financial assistance options. Her Liaison enlisted the help of the Shields’ Financial Assistance (FA) Team, which works behind the scenes to support all patients, and they began to research possible options for Lisa. The FA team constantly monitors for available funds at various, disease-specific foundations that offer funding for patients who are diagnosed with chronic illnesses and face financial hardship. The FA team quickly found a cancer foundation fund that had just opened up that day and immediately enrolled Lisa in the program. Lisa was then awarded a $7,000 grant to cover the monthly copay cost of her new medication. When Lisa received a call from her Liaison later that day with the good news, she started to choke up over the phone. Lisa said to her Liaison, “I can’t believe the team was able to save me $7,000! Please do not ever leave your job. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I cannot thank you and the rest of the team enough!” Lisa was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing she could start her treatment and face her new diagnosis with strength, instead of wondering how she would be able to afford her medication.
Key Takeaways:
To learn more about the day-to-day challenges that a chronically ill patient faces and how an in-house specialty pharmacy team can alleviate those worries, check out this video: https://bit.ly/2UEtoQM