The Chronic Disease Fund is one of the few charitable organizations to provide direct and immediate financial assistance to underinsured patients with chronic disease, cancers or life-altering conditions who cannot afford the co-payments for the expensive medications they need.

Patients who cannot afford their medications must fight two battles— their disease and the financial burden it places on their families. Though most patients with chronic or life-altering diseases have private insurance or a Medicare Part D plan, it is estimated that over 35% still cannot afford the co-pays or deductibles for their medications.

Underinsured patients are not eligible for most free drug or patient assistance programs, leaving them with few alternatives. If they can’t afford to fill or refill their prescriptions, they may be forced to do without their medications, go into debt to obtain them, reduce the dosage or stop taking them against doctor’s orders, any of which can have a serious effect on a patient’s health and quality of life.

Our organization helps this underserved population of patients obtain the expensive medications they need but cannot afford even with insurance. By funding their prescription drug co-payments and providing free therapy management services, we can ease their financial burden, ensure them access to the medications they need, enable them to experience the full benefits of their treatment by increasing drug compliance, and assist them in monitoring their health and disease progression over time.

Patients may choose to receive their prescription from any pharmacy that is able to dispense the product. If a patient chooses to utilize one of our participating pharmacies we will be able to alleviate the patient’s cash-flow issues by paying their out-of-pocket costs directly to the pharmacy on their behalf. Otherwise, patients can fill their prescription at a local pharmacy and submit their receipts for reimbursement.

We require that patients are 100% compliant with their prescribed treatment. By maximizing patient compliance we can achieve our goal of improving patient health and quality of life. To assist patients in staying compliant, the Fund provides patients with free access to DiseaseTrak™, an online therapy management tool.