Community pharmacy offers drugs to low-income, underinsured residents

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

Date published: 6/26/2007

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

Fewer area residents will have to choose between paying bills and buying medicine soon.

The Fredericksburg Area Regional Health Council began offering low-cost prescription medications to needy patients discharged from Mary Washington Hospital this month.

By the end of the summer, the pharmacy program should be available to residents of Fredericksburg and four surrounding counties who meet certain income requirements. The pharmacy is in the new Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic near the Fredericksburg hospital.

Efforts to set up a community pharmacy began after a community survey five years ago. The Rappahannock United Way asked people what they considered the most pressing needs.

Affordable medicine was near the top, said Stephen Batsche, president of the Rappahannock United Way.

Moss Clinic patients already could get prescription drugs. But to qualify for the clinic, people could make no more than 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. For a single person, that's an income of $12,762.50 or less based on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services formulas.

It's easier to qualify for the pharmacy program, which sets the income limits at 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.

Many people are going without medicine because they lack insurance or have insurance that doesn't cover the high-cost prescriptions, said Kimberly Smart, grants and development manager for the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation.

For example, Levaquin, a drug to treat infections, and Lotrel, a drug to lower blood pressure, each cost about $125 for a one-month supply for those without insurance coverage.

Often, they would check out of the hospital with a few days' worth of drugs. When that ran out, patients would beg or borrow money to get some more medicine. Usually they'd wind up back in the hospital, said Jennifer Reynolds, corporate and community programs manager for MediCorp Health System, the hospital's parent company.

The hospital already had a program to help needy patients get medicine. But it could take 12 weeks to get the drugs. And patients had to fill out the paperwork in one location then go somewhere else to pick up the medications.

With the community pharmacy, a case manager screens patients and completes the paperwork before they leave the hospital.

SCHEDULE The community pharmacy will serve patients in phases, to prevent getting too many clients at once. The pharmacy will first take only clients from the hospital, then the mobile health van, then from area doctors. Here is a list of who will be served and the dates those services will start: Now: Indigent patients discharged from Mary Washington Hospital will be served and former participants of the hospital's Medication Access Program July 15: Patients from Mary Washington Hospital's Auxiliary Mobile Health Program Aug. 15: Patients referred by private physician's offices The Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic The community pharmacy is open to those who make up to twice the federal poverty guidelines--$20,420 for a single person; about $41,000 for a family of four. Proof of income will be required. Those who use the pharmacy service must pay a $50 annual fee, along with a $4 administrative charge for each 30-day prescription, up to a maximum of $20 per month. For details, call the clinic at 540/741-1077. OTHER RESOURCES The community pharmacy will not fill narcotics or birth control prescriptions. Birth control is available from the Health Department. Also, Wal-Mart and Target pharmacies offer some generic prescriptions for $4. Lists of available drugs are online at walmart.com and target.com. These prescriptions are for anyone, regardless of income or insurance.

Date published: 6/26/2007

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