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Pharmaceutical Companies Offer Financial Support to Mesothelioma and Other Cancer Patients

Monday, November 9, 2009

by Nancy Meredith
Mesothelioma patients are faced with many challenging issues after they are initially diagnosed with the asbestos-related cancer. Determining where to receive their medical care, what treatments to use to fight the disease, how to cope with the symptoms, and when and how to tell those closest to them can all be stressful decisions to make.

Unfortunately, many patients will realize that the financial aspect of the disease will also add to the stress once the costs of the treatments are revealed and the insurance claims have been sorted out. According to a study conducted by Harvard Medical School, medical bills are responsible for close to 60 per cent of personal bankruptcies in the Unites States – with 75 percent of those individuals having health insurance.

Many physicians and pharmaceutical companies realize that the cost of treatment for mesothelioma and other cancers can leave the patient and their family deeply in debt. Patients are sometimes faced with having to end treatments early due to their mounting expenses.

Pharmaceutical Company Support
Virtually all of the major chemotherapy drug companies offer some form of financial support to their patients. Realizing that the treatment costs can be prohibitive to recovery for some patients, the companies are extending various types of aid to ease the burden of the health care expenses.

Programs offer support including providing patients with assistance in filing insurance claims, negotiating with insurance companies, offering financial resource information as well as providing reimbursement to the patients for uncovered expenses.

Eli Lilly’s PatientOne
Eli Lilly, the maker of both Alimta and Gemzar used in the treatment of mesothelioma and lung cancer, offers PatientOne. PatientOne is Lilly’s “oncology program that addresses financial, access, and claim issues for patients who are candidates for Lilly’s oncology products.” The program is aimed at assisting insured, uninsured and underinsured patients in processing claims, receiving payment support, and in assisting physicians with insurance and pharmaceutical issues.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Assistance Programs
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Patient Assistance Foundation Inc. is a nonprofit organization that helps qualifying patients with prescription drug coverage. Bristol-Myers is the maker of Platinol, generically known as Cisplatin, one of the primary chemotherapy drugs used in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma.

Bristol-Myers offers support to patients with financial hardship and has various programs including the Destination Access Program aimed at assisting cancer patients. Patients without insurance coverage may be eligible to receive their medicine for free, while insured patients are offered a variety of reimbursement services including benefits investigation, prior authorization assistance and appeals assistance.

Pfizer First Resource
Providing patients with assistance in gaining access to the medicines they need, First Resource helps patients with alternate funding assistance as well as support in filing claims and appeals with their insurance companies.

Pfizer makes various chemotherapy treatments, and specifically offers assistance to patients using Ellence (epirubicin hydrochloride) for the treatment of their mesothelioma.

Contact Companies for Further Information
Each of the companies have enrollment requirements, and not all patients are eligible for the assistance offered. If not eligible for the drug company’s program, however, patients may be offered support through partners and government agencies.

Labels: Featured Story

posted by Nancy Meredith at 4:44 PM
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