Faces of 340B: Helping Patients Back on Their Feet

by Admin | December 7, 2018 11:23 am

December 7, 2018— Getting healthy can be a particularly difficult thing for uninsured people to do, especially if they need prescription drugs that they can’t afford on their own.

San Ysidro Health, a nonprofit organization in San Diego, aims to address this problem through a program that uses 340B savings to get patients integrated back into the health care system. Uninsured patients who qualify are seen by a primary care physician to get the prescription orders they need, are sent home with a free 30-day supply of maintenance medications, and are connected with a health coverage enrollment assistance program so they can continue taking the drugs they need to stay healthy.

That crucial assistance “allows the patient to get back on their feet,” said Warren Quigley, San Ysidro Health’s pharmacy manager. Uninsured patients who must continue paying cash for their drugs after that point are eligible to receive their medications at 340B rates, which might be 40-50 percent lower than what they otherwise would be expected to pay.

Quigley is the newest profile in our Faces of 340B[2] video series. He notes that San Ysidro Health’s 30-day assistance program is one of the many ways in which the organization uses 340B to provide community health benefits and help people who can’t afford their health care. The system also offers such services as behavioral health, mobile medical units, an all-inclusive care program for seniors, and more.

Without the assistance of 340B, the jump in drug costs for uninsured patients likely would put needed medications out of reach for many, Quigley said. “That would result in noncompliance and patients’ health suffering because of that.”

Check out Quigley’s video profile[3] at our Faces of 340B website.

Source URL: https://340binformed.org/2018/12/faces-of-340b-helping-patients-back-on-their-feet/

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