Faces of 340B: Freedom to Focus on What Matters Most

by Admin | April 29, 2020 2:55 pm

April 29, 2020 – Sometimes one of the 340B drug pricing program’s greatest impacts can be seen when patients going through difficult health circumstances receive the financial support they need to focus on what matters most in their lives. That is what happened for Philadelphia resident Cheryl Chupp.

When Cheryl was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she knew she needed to stick with her treatments despite cost and transportation barriers. Cheryl couldn’t work due to her illness, and she needed to find a treatment center close to home because she doesn’t drive. But despite these challenges, she was determined to improve her health for her three children and several young grandchildren, in whose daily lives she is actively involved.

Cheryl found her health solution at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. There, she faced a challenging road to recovery, involving several procedures, multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and a costly medication regimen. But as stressful as that situation was, she had one thing she never worried about.

“I have never been presented a bill for any of my chemotherapy treatments,” she said.

Cheryl is the latest profile in our Faces of 340B[1] series. Her financial peace of mind is the result of Einstein’s 340B program. The center is using some of the savings from the discounts it receives on medications to help fill in the gap between what her Medicare and Medicaid coverage pays and the full cost of providing her care.

The financial assistance remains vital to Cheryl as she continues to receive maintenance treatments every three weeks at Einstein to prevent a recurrence of her cancer. That gives her the ability to focus on what matters most: staying healthy.

“To have that burden taken off of you, it allows you to not only begin to heal yourself, but you can still maintain a relatively normal lifestyle,” she said.

Today, in large part thanks to Einstein and 340B, Cheryl is still looking after herself and her family members who rely on her.

“My grandchildren, who range from age seven to eight months, are the reason that I continue to strive to be healthy, so that I can be here for them,” she said. “If I do not take care of me, I cannot be able to take care of them.”

Check out Cheryl’s video profile[2] on our Faces of 340B page.

Source URL: https://340binformed.org/2020/04/faces-of-340b-freedom-to-focus-on-what-matters-most/

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