Prescription drug program launched

By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

Hawai'i's low-income, under- or uninsured chronically ill residents are now a telephone call away from free or low-cost prescription medications donated to the poor by drug manufacturers, Gov. Linda Lingle announced yesterday.

Hawai'i Prescription Care, a nonprofit organization, helps enroll those who qualify for the differing criteria the various drug companies establish for their donated drugs.

The Hawai'i program was launched in March with a $3 million grant from the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and at no cost to taxpayers. It's modeled after Maryland's MEDBANK program, which began in 2000 and in two years provided $17.2 million in free medicine to 20,487 patients.

"It's so exciting to launch a new program in a new state for reaching out to patients who can't afford their medication," said Robert McEwan, MEDBANK's founder and board president who came to help launch Hawai'i's program. "It's a pervasive problem in the United States and it's one for which there is a remedy."

Hawai'i's program is expected to help 20,000 patients get vital medication they might otherwise be unable to afford, said Sharon Hicks, the program's executive director.

Hicks said the program will assist patients in taking advantage of free or low-cost drug programs offered by 120 drug companies, each with its own qualification requirements.

The call center acts as a referral service to help patients with the paperwork needed to apply for the various programs, but it is not responsible for determining if the patient qualifies, Hicks said.

The program usually requires four to six weeks for a prescription to be filled, but is computerized so refills are timely, she said.

It's not for immediate-need medications such as antibiotics, but for chronic ailments such as diabetes, mental illness and arthritis. Officials said the program in part is to prevent discharged patients from landing back in the hospital because they couldn't afford their prescribed medication.

Lingle has said that the program is not meant to solve the overall problem of soaring drug costs but to immediately help those most in need.

The program will be overseen by the state Department of Health and will run in cooperation with 12 Hawai'i Health Systems Corporation state hospitals and five Hawai'i Primary Care Association primary care clinics.