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Prescription assistance programs: options for assisting the uninsured and underinsured.

The objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of indigent patient or reimbursement assistance programs for prescription drugs sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry and to collect data describing them. A questionnaire was mailed to 121 manufacturers or marketers of prescription drugs selected from the 1990 edition of the Red Book and 1991 edition of the Physicians' Desk Reference. The availability of free drug to qualified indigent patients or the availability of experts to solve reimbursement issues was then ascertained. The general application procedures and features of both types of programs were documented. The authors found that indigent patient and reimbursement assistance programs are offered for many products by numerous pharmaceutical companies, although not always on a formal basis. Of the 69 (57%) companies responding to the survey, 46 (67%) offer indigent patient assistance programs and 31 (45%) offer reimbursement assistance programs. Application procedures and services provided vary considerably between companies. These findings suggest that the pharmaceutical industry is a potential source of assistance in procuring drugs for the indigent or underinsured patient populations and a resource for resolving insurance issues. It is essential to contact a sponsor to determine current program availability and application procedures. Further study is required to appraise the merit of such programs.