New program to improve Rx access in Tennessee

Starting today, about 860,000 uninsured Tennesseans who can’t afford their prescription medications have a new way to get their drugs for free.

Local nonprofit Dispensary of Hope on Wednesday launched its new Continued Access Program. Through a partnership with pharmaceutical manufacturers AstraZeneca, Merck and Novartis, the program will deliver drugs for chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and neurological disorders to qualifying Tennesseans.

According to Dispensary CEO Jason Dinger, roughly half of the state’s 1.7 million uninsured residents between the ages of 18 and 65 are living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $41,000 in gross annual income for a family of four.

As long as they’re not enrolled in Medicaid or have a third-party prescription plan, those 860,000 people are eligible to access the 47 drugs that are now part of the program.

“The nice part about Continued Access is once you qualify, you get it as long as you need it, as long as you qualify,” Dinger said.

The new Continued Access program complements the group’s flagship program, Instant Access, that collects unused prescription drug samples from physicians and delivers them free to patients at participating clinics — it now has 49 clinics in 11 states, including 22 in Tennessee. The challenge with the program, Dinger said, is the ebb and flow of inventory on a daily basis, so there may be times when a particular drug is not available.

For those with chronic conditions, Continued Access will ensure they always have the drugs they need, he said.

Novartis representative Tim Byler said Continued Access could save “tens of millions of dollars each year” by helping to keep uninsured patients healthy and out of emergency rooms, thus saving taxpayer dollars.

To enroll, Tennesseans can go to a participating clinic, call (888) 428-HOPE, or visit dispensaryofhope.org, where the list of drugs is also available.

Dinger said he expects the number of available drugs to expand as additional pharmaceutical companies join the program. He hopes to have 100 prescriptions available by the end of 2010.