Volunteers in Health Care was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to act as a national resource program for volunteer-led health care programs for the uninsured. Over the past three years, we have identified over 1,000 individuals and organizations across the United States which are providing medical care to the uninsured. Our previous RWJF program, Reach Out: Physicians' Initiative to Expand Care to the Underserved, funded 39 sites around the country which utilized over 11,000 physicians to provide care to over 200,000 underserved. An overarching finding across both programs was the complexity and importance of obtaining pharmaceuticals for patients lacking health insurance. We found that approaches include accessing pharmaceutical companies' patient assistance programs; re-distributing free drug samples; creating purchasing alliances for bulk or near-dated pharmaceuticals; forging collaborations with public health departments or hospital-based pharmacies; obtaining county or state funding specifically for indigent drug purchases; soliciting drug companies to participate in a statewide formulary with unified screening criteria; qualifying for federal "best pricing" legislation; and establishing an indigent drug fund through a hospital or medical society. As both the number of uninsured and physicians' reliance on pharmaceuticals in medical treatment continue to increase, providers of care to the uninsured must become increasingly innovative and flexible to meet the medical needs of this population. The aim of this session is to convene practitioners in the field; discuss models; share ideas, tools and resources; and develop recommendations for public health officials and policy-makers at the local, state, and national level.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) List various approaches utilized by community-based health care providers to obtain pharmaceuticals for uninsured patients 2) Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches 3) Discuss the role of public health agencies such as health departments in helping to increase access to pharmaceuticals for the uninsured
Keywords: Access to Care, Community-Based Health Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Volunteers in Health Care, a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.