Together with Lady of the Sea General Hospital, the volunteers help patients to gather all of the information necessary to receive help with the high cost of prescriptions. Many of our senior citizens only have a small amount of money each month to purchase everything they need. As time goes on, they are running out of money. They have to pay for Medicare, A supplement insurance and non-prescriptions meds they need. They need our HELP and we are ready to help them.

Almost all of the pharmaceutical companies have set up a prescription program to help the indigent patient. Most seniors who have Medicare and a supplement insurance do not have a prescription plan to help pay for their medicine. To apply for help is long and tedious. With the help of the volunteers, all of the paperwork can be done and mailed to the different programs available. If all works out well, medicines will arrive at the office in about two to three weeks. Sometimes the prescriptions are shipped to the home. A three month supply is the usual amount the patient receives. There are also cards which can be applied for like the �Together Card�, �Orange Card�, and �Care Card which pay a percentage. Thank-you!

The first thing the volunteer has to do is collect data about the patient. Each pharmaceutical company requires information on the person who has requested help. Evelyn Anselmi working at her desk.


All of the pharmaceutical companies require: Name, SS#, Birthday, Phone #, Proof of income, etc. We caught Evelyn by surprise.


All of the information about the patient is kept in folders in a filing cabinet. Only the volunteer workers have access to this information. Volunteer finding a patients folder to complete applications.


The telephone is a very important tool in this office. We must call the patient to verify information, to tell them to come in to sign applications, and to call the patients when the medicines come in. Ruby is returning a call from a future patient seeking assistance.


For every drug there is a new application. If a patient takes 7 medicines then you probabily have to fill out 7 different applications. Evelyn is filling out one of the applications.

This is a time sheet. Every volunteer must fill a form to tell how many hours each volunteer put in. Even volunteers must sign time sheets.??


When all of the applications are filled in, the patient comes in to sign each form. The next step is the doctors. He must write prescriptions and sign each application. Sometimes there are 20 to 30 forms to fill out. It takes a lot of the doctors time but they are willing to do it for the patient.


The nurses and other members of the staff have been wonderful in assisting the volunteers with information. Denise and Evelyn check for ID#'s for certain medicines.


The computer has been an invaluable tool in our search for programs to get medicines for. http://www.NeedyMed.Com is a very helpful site. Tammy and Evelyn check on the computer for information.



A final check of the paper work is made. If any thing is missing, it will delay the process or even cause a denial for help. When everything checks out, the application is mailed to the company. The company will notify the Doctor and the patient if they have been accepted. If they are not accepted, we will reapply with additional or missing information.

That is the process for one medicine for one patient. If the patient has 8 different medicines, it must be done 8 times. Sometimes a patient will take 2 different medicine from the same company and one application is necessary. This cuts out some of the work but it doesn't happen very often.

At this time (9/9/2004) we have helped over 200 patients with medicine.




Last update: Thursday, 09/09/04 6:11am

Click HERE if you are ready to go back to the home page.