The Partnership for Prescription Assistance: A history of caring

Print 10 November 2015
PhRMA

America is a country of problem solvers, innovators and dreamers. In April 2005, professionals on the front lines of health care at America’s biopharmaceutical research companies, created the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) to connect uninsured and underinsured patients to programs that provide prescription medicines for free or nearly free. Since 2005, PPA has helped nearly 9.5 million patients get access to public and private assistance programs.

Although patient assistance programs have been part of the health care system for many years, they can be hard for patients to learn about and navigate on their own. That’s where PPA comes in. Through its easy-to-use website, PPA offers patients and patient advocates a single point of access to information on more than 475 public and private patient assistance programs, including nearly 200 offered by biopharmaceutical companies. PPA member programs also offer access to more than 2,500 prescription medicines, including a wide range of generics.

When PPA launched in 2005, there were more than 29 million people in the United States without prescription drug coverage. However, despite more Americans having insurance today, barriers to accessing medicines still exist, underscoring the importance of PPA’s platform to educate and empower patients and caregivers to obtain information about their prescription assistance options.

In order to use PPA, a patient or patient advocate simply completes an online questionnaire with basic information about prescription medicines, income and current prescription medicine coverage. Then PPA matches the patient with assistance programs for which they may be eligible.

It’s free to use and confidential.

And it works.

Each month, more than 60,000 people visit PPA online to find patient assistance programs and much more. Through its online free clinic finder, PPA has connected more than 300,000 patients with

free health care clinics across the country. As the website has evolved, the clinic finder has become a user-friendly resource that offers an interactive map and directions to nearly 10,000 free health care clinics throughout the United States.

PPA remains committed to helping patients in need. By continuing to promote the program to patients and patient advocates through engagement with the health care community, PPA hopes to reach every patient in need of free or nearly free prescription medicines. PPA has established itself as a thought leader in the health and wellness community, showcasing articles that help patients live longer, healthier and more productive lives.

As America’s biopharmaceutical research industry continues to push forward, creating innovative new medicines and pathways to access for patients in need, PPA will continue to deliver hope to millions of patients in need.

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