New program helps uninsured get pills
Lynchburg News and Advance
Thursday, November 26, 2004A new program to help people without insurance gain access to prescription medications is under way at the Free Clinic of Central Virginia. An alliance, the Rx Partnership, links pharmaceutical companies, free clinics and community health centers with licensed pharmacies. The Rx Partnership essentially verifies that those in the partnership can order the free drugs for uninsured patients.
The result, said Bob Barlow, executive director of the Free Clinic of Central Virginia at 1016 Main St. in Lynchburg, is that instead of the time-consuming process of patient-by-patient applications, the free drugs can be ordered in bulk each month from participating drug manufacturers.
Documentation must be done to create an audit trail, he said, but if the clinic has 10 patients who need the same drug, it makes for a much more efficient process.
The Free Clinic does not have narcotic drugs, said Barlow, but does have drugs for chronic illnesses ordered for specific patients.
Meds Help at the Free Clinic, a program that accesses various drug companies’ programs for indigent patients, will continue to operate, said Barlow, but the Rx Partnership makes it possible to help more people.
The Rx Partnership, formed in 2004 as a nonprofit organization, received about $75,000 from the state to help launch the program for the uninsured.
Currently GlaxoSmithKline is the first company to offer its products through Rx Partnership, according to a news release from the Rx Partnership executive director Jim Beckner.
Since Oct. 15, when GlaxoSmithKline affiliated with the Rx Partnership, some $626,000 in free medicines has been distributed to affiliated clinics for their patients.
The partnership is currently working in space donated by the Medical Society of Virginia in Richmond.
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