Tag Archive for: copay assistance

How to Access Myeloma Financial Resources

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How to Access Myeloma Financial Resources from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

If you need help paying for myeloma care, where do you start? Yu Mee Song, an oncology social worker, reviews several resources, including copay assistance programs and advocacy groups.

Yu Mee Song, LCSW, OSW-C is a Social Work Program Coordinator at the Center of Excellence for Multiple Myeloma Program at Mount Sinai Hospital. Learn more about Yu Mee Song.

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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Yu Mee, many of the newer myeloma therapies can be quite costly. If a patient is seeking financial support, where would you suggest they start? 

Yu Mee Song:

Many of the pharmaceutical companies provide financial assistance  if you meet their eligibility criteria.   

So, you can start there with – with the help of your oncology social worker. There are other great organizations that provide a significant  copay assistance and also  reimbursement with your insurance premiums and coinsurance. Some of the ones that we use often are, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, HealthWell Foundation is another great organization, PAN F is another organization that provide copay assistance, and P-A-F Copay Relief Foundation.  

Katherine Banwell:

Okay. And, uh – uh, you as a social worker would have that information for a patient to – to direct them in the – the right path. 

Yu Mee Song:

Yes. Yeah. Because they would also need assistance from us and the physician, verifying certain – that they’re in treatment.  

 Katherine Banwell:

Right. Yeah. That makes sense. 

Where Can CLL Patients Access Financial Support?

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Where Can CLL Patients Access Financial Support? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Is there patient financial assistance for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatments? CLL expert Dr. Seema Bhat shares resources and advice for accessing support.

Seema Bhat, MD is a hematologist at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – The James. Learn more about Dr. Bhat.

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Transcript:

Katherine:  

Financial concerns can be another source of stress for people with CLL. Obviously, everyone’s situation is different, of course, but what resources are available for patients who need financial support? 

Dr. Bhat:  

So, financial barriers can be a real concern for our patients. Targeted therapies are very expensive, and although insurances do cover them, the approved FDA drugs, copays can be very high, and this adds on because our patients with – our treatments with CLL, some of them tend to be indefinite. That means patients have to take those medications on an ongoing basis, and when they face such situations, high copays, we look into financial assistance. We look for funding for copay assistance, and funding can be provided by pharmaceutical companies. We can also apply for grants through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other resources to help out our patients with these financial concerns.  

Katherine:  

So, does the patient work with the healthcare team to find financial support? 

Dr. Bhat:  

Absolutely. We at our institution have what is called, “MAP,” or Medication Assistance Program. 

And when we see that – we run the medications through the insurance, then we see the copay is high, we refer our patients to the MAP program, and then they take over. They find them grants, they find them assistance through be it pharmaceuticals, copay assistance programs. So, invariably, almost all patients who come and see us are helped through that program.  

Katherine:  

What about a nurse navigator or patient navigator? What do they do? How can they help?  

Dr. Bhat:

Well, so yes. Nurse navigators and patient navigators are also very important for caring for our patients. So, patients can have, besides our care for our patients which includes caring for their disease, caring for their symptoms, caring for their reduced hemoglobin and reduced platelets, our symptom management, they have psychological needs, they have functional needs, they have needs like family support. 

So, these are all the things that patient navigators can help patients set that up based on their – we have patients who travel from out of state, are from two or three hours away. So, these patient navigators look into what resources they should have available locally. Sometimes, patient navigators help us – some patients cannot do frequent travels back and forth, so we get them connected to local oncologists, also. So, patient navigators look into those appointments, look into those offices, so they provide a lot of help to us manage our patients. So, they provide more of a holistic management, rather than just treatment of CLL. 

MPNs and Pregnancy: Why Close Monitoring Is Important

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MPNs and Pregnancy: Why Close Monitoring Is Important  from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What complications can arise from an MPN during pregnancy? Dr. Joseph Scandura, from Weill Cornell Medicine, explains how pregnant women are monitored during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. 

Dr. Joseph Scandura is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Scientific Director of the Silver MPN Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Scandura.

 

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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

“What complications can arise from an MPN during pregnancy?” 

Dr. Scandura:

Well, look, pregnancy – here you have two things, one of them common and complicated and the other one uncommon and complicated. So, common is pregnancy, but every pregnancy is different. And there’s a lot of changes going on in the body, and there’s certain risks that can go along with that as well. So, clotting risks sometimes can be increased in pregnancy. And then you have an MPN, where you have a clotting risk on top of that. The pregnancy really changes what kinds of medications we can think about using. And so, there are certain medications that we use comfortably in patients that would be an absolutely forbidden medication in a pregnant woman.  

And so, it depends a little bit on what’s going on with the patient. But, if they have a history of clotting, then certainly, we would think about wanting to control the blood counts. It depends a little bit on what the disease is how we would do that. Interferons are commonly used in pregnancy, and they are safe in pregnancy and can improve the outcomes in some patients with pregnancy.  

But short of that, in patients, for instance, who are very thrombotic risk, sometimes we have to sort of balance the risk of having a clot and something that can interfere with the pregnancy and the risk of bleeding. So, it’s not uncommon that people are on blood thinners during pregnancy at some point, but it really depends on the individual patient. What we do here is we keep very close contact with the patients.  

And all of our patients are seen by the high-risk OB/GYN. So, it’s not the general obstetrics people who are monitoring the patient, so they’re much more closely monitored for complications of pregnancy. And we are seeing them more frequently during pregnancy to help, from the MPN side, to try to optimize and minimize the risks of clot. And that doesn’t end as soon as the baby’s out. If breastfeeding, their clotting risk is not normalized after pregnancy, as soon as the baby comes out. And so, you know, there’s an adjustment for several months afterwards where we’re still kind  of thinking about this person a little bit differently than we would if they were not or had not been recently pregnant. 

How to Access Financial Support for MPN Patients

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How to Access Financial Support for MPN Patients  from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Is there financial help for patients living with ET, PV, and myelofibrosis? MPN specialist Dr. Joseph Scandura shares advice and resources to ease the financial burden of care and treatment. 

Dr. Joseph Scandura is Associate Professor of Medicine and Scientific Director of the Silver MPN Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Scandura, here.

 

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Transcript:

Katherine:

We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up financial concerns, treatment and regular appointments can really become quite expensive. Understanding that everyone’s situation is different, of course, where can patients turn if they need resources for financial support? 

Dr. Scandura:

Yeah. It depends on what the issue is. So, one of the biggest areas that I found this can interfere with care is when we have copays that are really not reasonable and not affordable. And so, how do we fix that? How do we get access to an agent that might be beneficial for a patient but that – you know, and the insurance has approved it, but they’ve approved it with such a high copay that it’s just not an option anymore.  

And so, there are foundations. The PAN Foundation, we often will reach out to for copay assistance. And, actually, many companies have copay assistance programs for their individual drugs. And so, we have some of our nurses who are quite good at navigating these different agencies, and some of them are kind of drug-specific.  

And because we see a lot of patients with MPNs and the number of drugs is not that great, we’re pretty tapped into what are the options for copay assistance that might be helpful. And it often works. It doesn’t always work. I had a patient I saw pretty routinely, and I kind of like my certain group of labs that kind of make me feel like I have a good sense of what’s going on. But he was getting killed with the lab costs. And he mentioned this to me, and then I have to do what I tell my – I have three teenage daughters, right? And, when they were littler – smaller, younger, we spent a lot of time distinguishing needs from wants, right?  

So, this was one of those instances. What laboratory do I need to make sure that this patient is safe? What do I want because it makes me feel like I have a better idea of what’s going on? And maybe I can back off on those wants if I’m seeing the patient pretty frequently, which I happen to be at that time. And so, some of that is a conversation.   

And it depends on the specifics of the insurance and a little bit of back and forth and knowing how to kind of minimize that financial burden when that’s starting to compromise care.