Feature on Needy Meds by Terri Rimmer - originally published by Associated Content

Long before the U.S. economy went south, Rich Sagall and a friend formed a company that made it possible for the neediest to obtain their medications. (Source: Rich Sagall).

In 1997, Needymeds.com, a non-profit company, was created by Sagall, a board certified family and occupational physician and Libby Overly, a medical social worker. Overly gathered information about a patient assistance program (PAP) while Sagall was just learning how to make web pages. (Source: Needymeds).

The organization's mission is to educate individuals, professionals, and organizations about sources of help where they can get no-cost needed medications. The company, a 501(3) © corporation, now has information on over 300 companies and state and local programs that help people with prescriptions.

Needymeds.com has had well over 5 million visitors to the home page to date and they get over 8,000 visitors daily, according to Sagall. The program is self-funded by sales of manuals and other items. Then there are a number of sites that charge to help people learn about patient assistance programs and complete the application forms.

With pending Medicare changes, Tennessee is ending much of its patient assistance programs because of the economy, said Sagall, and he doesn't see the problem going away. Poverty guidelines for NeedyMeds assistance vary from state to state. Many, but not all pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs, said Sagall. In 2002 PAPs helped over five million people, according to the needymeds.com website. The drug companies decide if they will have a PAP and, if they do, which of their medicines are available through the program. Sometimes a medicine or certain drug will be on a program, then off, and then back on again. Many companies have programs or prescription cards that will allow qualified patients to get medications at a discounted price.

Sagall said doctors are not the best source of information on PAPs, but the internet is. If you know the medicine's manufacturer, you can click on the programs list on the NeedyMeds site. Applicants are instructed to check information on the site by drug and company name.

"Roughly forty million people don't have health insurance, [in the United States]" Sagall said. "They take the brunt of our costs of health care because those are the people who have to pay the list price for their medications. Fifty percent of bankruptcies are due to medical bills. The Medicare Part D starting in January, no one really knows what's going to happen with them. It's not going to pay for all prescriptions. Our health care system is strange."

Starting January 1st, Medicare will be implementing a new Rx program which has been touted by proponents as "paying for prescriptions" for those receiving the government assistance.

Sagall, who also publishes Pediatrics for Parents, a monthly newsletter with a circulation of between 10,000-11,000, said needymeds.com wants to increase the knowledge that the company exists and though they have never done any advertising, they are easy to find with Google and Yahoo search engines by typing in the words "patient assistance programs." The site also enables consumers to download, publish, and distribute a helpful article written by Sagall about the company. Needymeds.com also publishes manuals for doctor's offices and other companies but not individuals. Sagall said he'd like to be able to get funding to give the manuals away to organizations that need it and he's looking into getting the site translated into Spanish.

"We're trying to get funding to do a few things like a telephone helpline but we don't have the staff right now to man the phones," said Sagall. "We're also looking into doctor programs to educate doctors about our company. We're always finding more information about programs. We're also looking for other types of programs that might be able to help people. We're putting together information for people who might cannot pay co-pays with insurance and we're gathering information to help people navigate and complete the forms. There's a lot of information out there that we're still trying to gather."