Posted on: Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Drug assist agency to close
By Deborah Adamson
Advertiser Staff Writer
A nonprofit agency that is helping more than 7,000 low-income people in Hawai'i get free or low-cost prescription drugs will close next June. Its services will be taken over by other healthcare programs and a Web site.
Hawaii Prescription Care, introduced by Gov. Linda Lingle last summer, helps low-income patients apply for free or low-cost drugs from major pharmaceutical companies. The application process is complex, since each drugmaker has its own criteria to qualify.
But the pharmaceutical industry recently created a free Web site that streamlines the process for consumers, prompting the state to decide not to continue Hawaii Prescription Care past its original two-year mandate.
Moreover, a discount drug program called Hawaii Rx Plus and a recycled drug initiative were signed into law last month to assist low-income families and individuals.
Hawaii Prescription Care was meant to bridge the gap until other solutions to high drug costs were crafted, said Linda Smith, senior policy advisor for the governor. "It was meant to be a transition program."
Hawaii Prescription Care, announced at a press conference in the governor's chambers last year, was paid for with a two-year, $3 million grant from The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
Sharon Hicks, the program's executive director, said she had hoped Hawaii Prescription Care would continue beyond its initial two years, and is concerned the other programs won't be able to help everyone her agency had assisted. "It's such a great program," Hicks said. Losing it "is very distressing."
Hawaii Prescription Care said in a recent report it had helped 7,170 people since it began in July 2003.
The Web site run by pharmaceutical companies will help people apply for free or low-cost drugs from 48 drug companies, less than half as many as Hawaii Prescription Care accesses.
Smith said the state Department of Health would assist people who don't have computers or don't know how to use the Internet to enroll in the free drug programs.
"Once a person gets onto the program, we don't need to have someone help them any longer," Smith said.
Greg Marchildon, director of the senior advocacy group AARP Hawaii, said that while Hawaii Prescription Care did help some low-income patients, it was a small solution to the much bigger problem of reining in the high cost of prescription drugs.
The nonprofit helps just a fraction of those who need lower cost drugs, he said; there are about 300,000 people in the state without prescription drug coverage. Moreover, it is dependent on drug company programs, which could be discontinued at any time.
"This program was never going to solve the problem of the high cost of prescription drugs for Hawai'i," Marchildon said.
Reach Deborah Adamson at dadamson@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8088.
The Hawaii Rx Plus program is expected to provide discounts of 9 percent to 60 percent on prescription drugs. The recycled drug program asks healthcare facilities and other entities to donate extra drugs to the state for distribution to needy patients.
Low-cost drugs
To contact Hawaii Prescription Care, call 599-6000.
The new pharmaceutical industry Web site for low-cost medicine is at www.helpingpatients.org.
