APRIL 9 2020

AUTHOR

Chastity Werner »

How are your patients recently faced with unemployment going to be able to afford their medications? Before our country was faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a prescription epidemic. It is estimated that 1 in 4 Americans are impacted by cost-related medication non-adherence (CRMN). Many times, faced with the difficult decision of paying their rent, groceries, utilities or prescriptions. Over the past several days our unemployment rates have increased at a massive rate and will to continue to grow. Those currently facing unemployment may have been insured by an employer’s plan or paid for individual coverage that provided financial relief for their prescription costs. Considering the average American has less than a $1,000 in savings, many of those faced with unemployment will not be able to afford their individual premiums or cost of COBRA insurance to continue their insurance coverage. Causing them to pay retail price for their prescribed medicines.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic there were over 30 million uninsured. It does not take an actuary to understand increases in uninsured and underinsured are going to follow suit with unemployment rates. It will be a domino effect. As we know, when patients are unable to afford their medicine, they will resort to cost-related medication nonadherence (CRMN) reducing or skipping dosages, sharing prescriptions or not filling them all together. It is estimated that 68% of readmissions are avoidable adverse events related to medication nonadherence and can be prevented. 1 in 3 diabetic patients before the impact of Coronavirus Pandemic were unable to afford food, medication or both, and CRMN is most common with individuals with food insecurities. In turn, these patients will end up in our emergency rooms and readmitted requiring much of the attention and equipment that is already in fear of shortage due to impact of the pandemic. Although there are many uncertainties of the virus, there is one commonly known fact – the ones most impacted are those with poor outcomes (diabetes, COPD, CHF, etc.). Coincidentally, medications related to these types of chronic illness are some of the most expensive on the market leaving patients feeling helpless and not knowing where to turn or what to do. Not to mention the impact of the states with Stay-At-Home orders, patients not wanting to go into public facilities and pick up their prescriptions.

What plan has your organization created to ensure your patients facing financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic get access to the medications they need but cannot afford? Before the pandemic healthcare organizations were faced with patients that were frequent flyer to their emergency rooms and inpatient stays due to medication non-adherence. Unfortunately, the situation will only worse as unemployment and uninsured rates continue to rise.

The good news is there are great programs available to assist these patients with their prescription costs. Many of these programs are free and will ship medication directly from the manufacturer to the patient’s home. Allowing the patient to have a continued supply without exposing themselves to the virus. However, the programs’ application process and requirements can be overwhelming and time-consuming for patients to independently complete and we our clinical teams have less time now than before to assist.

As healthcare providers it is vital, we are proactive in assisting these patients by creating a plan to assist these patients in their time of need.

Quick steps that will allow your organization to assist these patients:

Create a medication assistance program (including, but not limited to patient assistance programs, copayment assistance cards, and most cost-effective place to purchase medications)
Identify patients that are at a higher risk by utilizing EHR data (medication, medication cost (average retail value), payor class, employment position type, condition or diagnosis, and charity care (financial assistance) status
Design a multi-faucet pronged patient outreach system (phone, text, email, mailings)
Assist patients with the process in its entirety until the application is successfully processed by the manufacturer
Track results and follow-up with the patients to ensure if there are additional steps, they are completed to allow the patient to not have disruptions in their medication assistance.

Like revenue cycle payors, pharmaceutical programs commonly have unique applications, requirements and processes. Their processing timeframes can vary from a few business days to 30 plus days, but if successfully completed, the efforts are worth its weight I gold. Many of the programs ship three months of medication directly to the patients home free of charge, allowing the patient to save thousands of dollars per year or even month!

If you are interested in learning more about how NPC can assist your patients and organization with the medication assistance process, please contact us today:

Chastity Werner

CEO

(314)920-7938

cwerner@npc-meds.com

TAGS:

Prescription Help | Medication Cost | Prescription Assistance Programs

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OCTOBER 12 2017

HIPAA Policy

AUTHOR

Sharon Combs »

HIPAA Disclosure Nationwide Prescription Connection (NPC) fully comprehends and appreciates the confidential nature of protected health information (PHI). NPC fully complies with all Federal and State health information privacy and security laws. NPC will only disclose PHI as permitted or required by law or as permitted by your prior authorization. NPC limits the information that it discloses to its Business Associates and requires that its Business Associates keep your information secure in compliance with all Federal and State laws. All PHI is encrypted in compliance with Federal recommendations and is secured against unauthorized access. NPI only retains PHI for the time period required by law. NPC maintains privacy and security policies in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure that your information protected. A copy of NPC’s Notice of Privacy Practices is available on our website and by request. Notice of Privacy Practices THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW YOUR HEALTH AND OTHER PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW THIS CAREFULLY. Our Services and Information We Collect Nationwide Prescription Connection (NPC) helps clients obtain lower cost prescription medications. To provide you with these services, NPC will ask you for personal information that it will keep in your records. This information may include: Information that identifies you, such as your name, address, telephone number, date of birth and social security number. Protected health information, which includes any information that tells us about your past, present or future health or mental health treatment. Information about benefits or services that you are receiving or have received. Our Responsibilities Federal and State laws protect the privacy of your health and other personal information and we will follow all of those laws. We will take reasonable steps to keep your information safe, and will use (share within NPC) and disclose (share with persons outside of NPC) your information only as necessary to do our jobs and as permitted or required by law. We are required to let you know if a breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your health information. If we have a need to use or disclose your information for any reason other than those listed below, we will ask you for your written permission. You have a right to cancel any written permissions you have given to us. If you cancel your permission, the cancellation will not apply to uses and disclosures that we have already made based on your permission. We are required by law to provide you with this notice and to follow it. We can change the terms of this notice, and the changes will apply to all information we have about you. The new notice will be available upon request. *How We May Use and Disclose Information without* your Written Permission For Treatment and Services*: NPC personnel who work with you may use your health and other personal information as necessary to provide you with services. Missouri law strictly protects health records retained by psychologists, social workers and professional counselor. Specifically, these records may only be disclosed in the following instances: With your written consent, or in the event of death, with your personal representative’s consent; If the information pertains to a criminal act; If you are under eighteen (18) years of age and the information indicates that you are the victim of a crime; If you bring charges against the above mentioned professional who created or maintains the records; If the above-mentioned professional is call to testify in any court or administrative proceeding about matters of adoption, adult abuse, child abuse, child neglect, or other matters pertaining to the welfare of clients or the professional; When the professional is collaborating or consulting with professional colleagues or an administrative superior on behalf of you. NPC will not share or disclose any psychotherapy notes without your written permission. We will share your information with persons outside* of NPC for services only with your written permission or as allowed by federal or State law. For example, federal and State laws permit our professionals that provide treatment services to share your health information with outside health care providers who are also treating you. For Health Care/Business Operations: We may use or disclose your health and other personal information to manage our programs or activities. For example, NPC or outside auditors may look at your case record to review the quality of services you received. For Notifications: We may need to contact you or your representative to ask you to complete paperwork or to reach you in an emergency. To our Business Associates: We have agreements with persons outside of NPC that perform services on our behalf, or provide us with administrative and support services, such as financial or legal services, data analysis, and accreditation and quality assurance reviews. These persons are called business associates. We may disclose your information to business associates so that they can perform these services for us. However, we require our business associates to keep your information safeguarded. To your Family, Friends and Others Involved in Your Care: We may disclose your health information to your family or others who are involved in your medical care or payment. If you do not want us to share this information with your family, you can ask that we not do so. For Government Programs: We may disclose health and other personal information about you to determine if you are eligible for other government benefits or programs such as Social Security benefits. For Public Health Activities: We may use or disclose health information about you for public health activities. For example, if you have been exposed to a communicable disease (such as a sexually transmitted disease), we may report it to the State and take other actions to prevent the spread of this disease. For Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose your information as required by law to other agencies who oversee our programs for oversight activities such as audits, inspections, investigations, and licensure. For Abuse and Neglect Reports and Investigations: We are required by law to report any cases of suspected abuse or neglect of children or vulnerable adults, including adults abused as children. Health and mental health providers are required by law to share information with adult and child protective services if the health / mental health care provider believes the information will contribute to the protective service investigation, assessment of risk, or service/safety plan. To Avoid Harm: NPC may disclose health and other personal information about you to law enforcement under certain conditions. For example, if our professional staff believes that you are likely to cause serious harm to others or yourself, then we will contact law enforcement. NPC may also disclose your health and other personal information in case of a threat to the public, such as a terrorist attack or emergency disaster. To Coroners, Funeral Directors, Medical Examiners and for Organ Donation: NPC may disclose health information relating to death to coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors and also to authorized organizations relating to organ, eye or tissue donations or transplants. For Research Purposes: We may use or disclose your health information for medical research purposes under certain circumstances. In some cases, your written permission will be needed. Research studies and reports will not identify people by name. For Court proceedings: We may be required by law or court order to provide information about you to the court. We may also share health information about you for workers’ compensation claims. As Required by Law: If a law or regulation requires that we disclose your health or other personal information, we must do so. Fundraising: We generally do not engage in fundraising with our clients, but if we contact you for fundraising efforts, you can tell us not to contact you again. Your Rights Regarding your Information You have the right to: Obtain a copy of this notice. This notice is available in alternative format upon request. Ask us to contact you at a different location or to contact you by a different method than we routinely use. For example, you may ask that we contact you by phone or mail at work instead of at home. See, review and receive a copy of information we maintain about you. You must make this request in writing and you may be charged a fee to pay for the cost of copying your record. There are certain situations when we may not give you the right to review or obtain a copy of your records. If this happens, we will explain why. If we maintain your health information in an electronic record, you can also ask for your information in an electronic format. Ask us to correct information about you that you think is incorrect or incomplete. You must do this in writing. In some situations, we are not required to make the change. If we do not agree to make the change, we will explain why. Ask for a list (accounting) of the times we have disclosed your health information for six years prior to the date you ask. This listing will not include disclosures made for treatment, payment or health care operations purposes, or disclosures you have permitted us to make. You must make this request in writing. Request that we not share health information with a family member or others involved in your care. Request that we not share your information for a treatment/service, payment or health care operations purpose. These requests must be made in writing. We are not required to agree to these requests, but if we do, we must comply with the agreement, unless we need to disclose the information for your emergency treatment. If we cannot agree to your request, we will explain why. Require that we obtain your written permission if we want to sell your information or share your information for marketing purposes. File a complaint or report a problem if you feel we have violated your rights. We will not take any action against you for filing a complaint. Submit complaints to: Nationwide Prescription Connection Sharon Combs (Privacy Officer) P.O. Box 70 Doniphan, MO 63935 Phone: 573-351-1207 If your complaint relates to your health information, you may also contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights by calling 1-877-696-6775. How to Make a Request If you have questions about our privacy practices or want to make a request for any of the above, please contact NPC’s Privacy Officer, Sharon Combs, at the address listed above. We ask that your request be made in writing.

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Advocacy

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Rated 3.75 star by 2 people.

OCTOBER 27 2016

Prescription help is here!!

AUTHOR

Sharon Combs »

Thank you for taking the time to review Nationwide Prescription Connection and what our program can do for you.

Nationwide Prescription Connection is committed to assisting patients with receiving free or reduced cost medications. We simplify the process and make it easy for you to apply.

If you: