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Financial Assistance

There are many sources of financial assistance, but sometimes it takes a little persistence to get it.

For specific assistance links, see these pages on the GIST Support International website:

Contents

[edit] Medical Financial Assistance

Ask at your doctor's office. Speak directly to the physician. However, he/she may tell you to see the practice manager or insurance coordinator and explain your financial situation. They can set up payment plans, get you discounts or even get balances written off.

Ask at your hospital. See your patient coordinator or billing coordinator or even the social worker. Hospitals have programs set up for patient financial assistance. They set money aside in their budgets to use to help patients pay their expenses. You will have to provide a financial disclosure for their review committee.

[edit] Prescription Assistance

First, ask your doctor. Most practices have SAMPLES available for patients. They DO NOT have to be for the first use, only. Doctors can give samples out to anyone at anytime once they have prescribed something. The office can also request their drug rep to leave extra samples of a particular medicine if they know a patient is in need and it is available. Certain drug companies also have vouchers and discount or rebate coupons for their medicines. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if these are available. Your pharmacist would know if they have seen others with these. too. Check on line for these, also. Go to the web site for a particular drug or drug company and look for it. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if a GENERIC is available. The costs for generics are substantially less. There may be a generic drug that is comparable with another that does not have a generic. Ask your doctor and have him/her check the generic allowed box on your prescript

PPA or Partnership for Prescription assistance also helps get medicines for you at reduced rates or even free. Call them and they will ask for a list of your medicines and will then send you information on available help for your particular medicines. The website is www.pparx.org and has three options to start off with. Patients, Caregivers and Prescribers all have a box to click on to begin the process using an online application wizard. The phone number is 1-888-477-2669.

NOVARTIS, ASTRA ZENECA, PFIZER, etc all have patient assistance programs of their own and most participate with PPA. You can contact them directly, if you do not get their information through PPA.

[edit] Airfare and Airline Travel

MERCY MEDICAL AIRLIFT is the best help with airline travel that I know. Their number is 1-888-675-1405. Elaine or Gene are the coordinators. They also provide tickets on commercial flights for a cancer patient and a caregiver to travel to cancer treatments and oncology appointments. They provide help to adult patients as well as children. They have corporate sponsors that donate money as well as frequent flyer miles to provide these tickets. You need to sign up with them. It is then important to give them as much advance notice as possible for them to arrange flights and get tickets.

Individual airlines have different policies for air assistance. Most have them for children, only. You can contact Delta, Continental, or Southwest directly.

Angel flight or Corporate Angel Flight also help arrange flights for cancer patients. The drawback is that you have to live in an area where they have private pilots or corporate planes available that happen to be flying to the place that you want to go and back at the times you need to go.

[edit] OTHER ASSISTANCE

Cancer Care has social workers/case managers for financial counseling/assistance:

http://www.cancercare.org/get_help/assistance/index.php

Patient Advocate Foundation

PATIENT ADVOCATE FOUNDATION is a national non-profit organization that seeks to safeguard patients through effective mediation assuring access to care, maintenance of employment and preservation of their financial stability.

http://www.patientadvocate.org/help.php

1-800-532-5274

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