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MARK ALYN: Well, welcome to NeedyMeds. As you can see, we are in studio right now
with Dr. RICH SAGALL. And we are talking about NeedyMeds and the patient assistance that
it offers that the organization offers to people without any cost. It s really important
to understand that there is no cost. Now, we know that healthcare is going up and up
and up. Medical care is going up and up and up. You now provide copay cards. What is a
copay card? RICH SAGALL: We provide information on what we call copay programs. These are
programs that help people who have insurance but are on a medication which has a large
copayment and they can t afford it. Many of the drugs are specialty drugs, the drugs for
very rare diseases, the copay can be hundreds of dollars a month. And that can be a real
burden. So there are programs that will help people who can t afford that. MARK ALYN: How
do you get one of these cards? How do you go about that? RICH SAGALL: Well, what you
want to do is go to our website. And you want to go to the diagnosis-based assistance program.
And then you can look em up there. So they re by diagnosis or by drug. So if there is
a copay card for a drug, it would be listed under the brand name drug section. So it s
either way, depending because some of the programs are drug-specific; others are diagnosis-specific.
MARK ALYN: How much is the cost of a drug how much of an issue is this when a doctor
is prescribing the drug? I personally when a doctor says, I m going to give you x, y,
z, I always ask for the generic. And usually they say, hey, that s fine. RICH SAGALL: Most
of these drugs, there is no generic. They may be the biologicals, which are very expensive
to make. Or drugs for rare diseases, etc. So there would not be a generic equivalent
for these. MARK ALYN: And who can use the copay cards? RICH SAGALL: Generally, there
are certain income insurance guidelines. But the copay cards are for people who have health
insurance with a big copayment or deductable. So it s different than most of the other information
we have, cause that is generally for people who don t have insurance. But these are for
people who do have insurance. MARK ALYN: So something like I can remember my mother being
given a cholesterol lowering drug, and the price was several hundred dollars a month.
And, at the time, the doctor said, that s silly. I m going to change your medication.
And, by the way, the generic lowered her cholesterol a little bit better than the name brand. My
point is that it s available for people like my mom who had insurance. RICH SAGALL: It
would be. It s not for to be honest, it s not for the common diagnoses. It s for the
more rare diagnoses and much more expensive medications. So it varies. But that brings
up a good point, Mark, which is you always want to check on the website, because you
never can tell what you re going to find. There s all sorts of information there on
many, many different types of programs. And you have to look. And you have to come back
and look, because the programs are always changing. MARK ALYN: And the website is always
being updated. Dr. Sagall, thank you very much. If you want information on copay cards,
or any kind of healthcare assistance, we encourage you to visit us at NeedyMeds.org. It s very
simple. NeedyMeds.org. Or give our helpline a call, and somebody will be glad to talk
you through whatever you need. I m Mark Alyn, again, for Dr. RICH SAGALL. We ll see you
on the next edition of NeedyMeds.
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