What We Do

When someone is diagnosed with a chronic or life-altering disease like cancer or multiple sclerosis, they must fight both their illness and the financial burden it places on their family as they struggle to pay for their medications.

The Chronic Disease Fund is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization that helps underinsured patients with chronic disease, cancers or life-altering conditions obtain the expensive medications they need. We assist patients throughout the United States who meet income qualification guidelines and have private insurance or a Medicare Part D plan but cannot afford the co-payments for their specialty therapeutics. We pay the patient’s out-of-pocket costs directly to the provider, eliminating the cash flow problems that can prevent them from getting their medications.

The Chronic Disease Fund currently supports patients with more than a dozen different diseases, including many types of cancer (breast, colorectal, and lung cancer, and multiple myeloma), rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, and macular degeneration, to name a few. We are limited in the financial support we can provide for each disease, as it is based on the funding we raise each year through grants and contributions. Our organization receives no government assistance.

Though most patients with chronic or life-altering diseases have insurance, it is estimated that over 30% cannot afford the co-payments for the expensive medications they need, which can range from $300 to over $3000 per month for a single dose. These underinsured patients are not eligible for most free drug or patient assistance programs, leaving them with few alternatives. They may be forced to do without their medications or go into debt to obtain them, greatly affecting their health and quality of life.

The Chronic Disease Fund is one of the few charitable organizations providing financial assistance to underinsured patients with these serious diseases. Before receiving aid from the Fund, our average patient unsuccessfully sought help from four to six other non-profit organizations. By funding their drug co-payments and providing free therapy management services, the Chronic Disease Fund eases the financial burden to patients, ensures them access to the medications they need, enables them to experience the full benefits of their treatment by increasing drug compliance, and assists them in monitoring their health over time.

The Chronic Disease Fund was founded in 2003 by Mike Banigan to provide co-pay assistance to underinsured patients with chronic diseases, cancer, and other life-altering conditions.

Mike was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 1992, and as new treatments became available, he became all too familiar with the high cost of the specialty therapeutics needed to treat or control these diseases. Mike founded the Chronic Disease Fund so that underinsured patients could have access to the new, breakthrough medications and treatments that can greatly improve their health, enhance their quality of life, and extend their lives.

The Chronic Disease Fund has quickly become one of the largest co-pay organizations, and more than 90% of every dollar we receive goes directly to patient assistance

Our mission is to improve the health and quality of life of underinsured patients with chronic disease, cancer, or other life-altering conditions who cannot afford the medications they so desperately need.

Donations to Chronic Disease Fund are made through a number of sources in and outside of the healthcare industry, including corporate and individual contributors. As a copayment assistance organization, the Chronic Disease Fund operates within a complex regulatory framework. The regulations governing the healthcare industry, as well as a favorable Advisory Opinion that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued to Chronic Disease Fund, set standards that it must meet to stay in compliance with applicable laws. According to the OIG opinion, Chronic Disease Fund may not disclose the identity of its donors.

In 2009, Chronic Disease Fund provided financial assistance to 45,000 patients who, without such assistance, would likely have been unable to afford the critical treatments they needed. It is only through the generosity of all of our donors that we can attribute this success.

Chronic is an independent non-profit organization and is not controlled or influenced by any of its donors. The assistance that Chronic Disease Fund provides to patients is based on objective criteria that it applies consistently and in accordance with applicable laws.

The Chronic Disease Fund (“CDF”) is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) charitable organization. CDF maintains a Conflict of Interest Policy to govern transactions and relationships between CDF and any of its trustees, officers, or their respective affiliates. Pursuant to such policy, any such transactions or relationships must be approved [in advance] by the disinterested members of CDF’s Board of Trustees. In the interests of full disclosure, and in support of CDF’s commitment to corporate values and ethics, CDF desires to disclose that it licenses certain software and technology that is used in its operations, and obtains certain services in connection therewith, from DiseaseTrak, Inc. The President, founder and a member of the Board of Trustees of CDF, is also the founder, CEO and sole shareholder of DiseaseTrak, Inc. The agreement pursuant to which CDF licenses such software and technology and obtains such services from DiseaseTrak, Inc. has been approved by CDF’s Board of Trustees in accordance with CDF’s Conflict of Interest Policy. CDF’s Board of Trustees believes that such agreement was entered into on an arms’ length basis, based on the fact that the fees payable by CDF thereunder are the same as are paid by unaffiliated parties to DiseaseTrak for such licenses and services.

For any further questions, please contact: info@cdfund.org