Long before the American economy took off, Rich Sagall and a friend entered into a partnership that made it possible to obtain much-needed drugs. (Source: Sagall Rich).
In 1997, Needymeds.com, a non-profit corporation, was created by Sagall, a board-certified family and occupational therapist, and Libby Overly, a medical social worker. workers. He was collecting too much information about the patient program (PAP) while Sagall was just learning how to make web pages. (Source: Book).
The government’s mission is to train individuals, professionals, and organizations around sources of help where they can get the drugs they need at no cost. The company, a 501(3) © corporation, now has information on over 300 companies and state and local programs that help people with prescriptions.
Needymeds.com has had well over 5 million visitors to the page on home recently, and over eight 000 visitors every day; according to Sagall. The purpose is self-funding through sale of manuals and other items. Then there are several sites that claim to help people learn about patient assistance programs and fill out application forms.
With pending Medicare changes, Tennessee is shutting down much of its patient assistance program because of the economy, Sagall said, and he doesn’t see the problem going away. Poverty guidelines for NeedyMeds subsidies vary from state to state. Many, but not all, pharmaceutical companies have patient programs, Sagall said. In 2002, PAPs helped more than five million people, according to the needs.com website. Medical companies decide if they will have the Pap and, if they do, which of their drugs will be available through the program. Sometimes a certain medicine or medication will be prolonged, then go away, and then come back again. Many companies have programs or prescriptions that allow eligible patients to obtain medications at a discounted price.
Sagall said doctors aren’t the best source of information on Paps, but the internet is. If you know a medical device, you can click on the list of programs on the NeedyMeds website. Applicants are instructed to check information about the site by drug and company name.
About 40 million people health-insurance-benefits”>health, [in the United States of America],” Sagall ” they said. Our costs health care should be met because they are the ones who pay the list price for their medicine. Fifty percent of bankruptcies due to medical bills, one really knows what will happen to them.
Starting January 1st, Medicare will implement a new Rx program, which is assumed by sponsors to “pay for prescriptions” for government assistance recipients.
Sagall, who also publishes Pediatrics for Parents, a monthly newsletter with a circulation between 10,000-11,000, said needymeds.com wants to increase awareness that the company exists and although they’ve never done any advertising, it’s easy to find on Google. and Yahoo search engines by typing in the words “patient support promises”. The site also allows users to edit and share useful articles written about Sagall’s company. Needymeds.com also publishes manuals for doctor’s offices and other companies but not individuals. Sagall said he wants to get funding so he can give it to organizations that need it and is looking to get the site translated into Spanish.
“We’re trying to get some money to do things like help the phone, but we don’t have staff right now to man the phone,” Sagall said. We are also looking at doctor programs to educate doctors about our company. We are always finding more information about the program. We are also looking for other programs that can help people. We collect information for people who can’t pay co-workers with insurance and collect information to help people navigate and complete forms. There’s a lot of information out there that we’re still trying to gather.”
