The pain of an injury or illness is sometimes unbearable, but equally painful is the cost of some prescription medications people need to get better or to stay healthy. Sue Leavitt, a pharmacy technician at North Country Hospital in Newport, is trying to ease the pain of the cost of prescription drugs for eligible patients.
The Medication Assistance Program, which North Country began in 2005, has saved area patients about $350,000. Sue works with people in the community with a proven economic need get assistance to obtain the necessary prescription medications to maintain their health.
“I love the program,” Sue said. “It’s an excellent service the hospital is providing to the community. If there wasn’t this program some of the people I work with would be unable to buy their prescription drugs.” She explained that people who take their medications as prescribed are less likely to end up suffering other health effects, or ending up hospitalized.
“The doctors and other providers go out of their way to help their patients get the prescription drugs they need,” Sue said. “They often direct people with a financial need to me. They don’t want their patients to end up in the emergency room because they can’t afford their medications.”
Sue’s job is to work with needy patients, and other community residents, to help them obtain affordable prescription medications, especially when they don’t have prescription medication benefits. She works directly with the pharmaceutical companies to help people who have a proven financial need get a price break on needed medication. Often times she is able to obtain medications at a drastically reduced rate, and sometimes even free. When needed, she’ll help those applying for help fill out the necessary paperwork.
“I enjoy helping the people I get to meet,” Sue said. “Most of them are so grateful.” She added that providing patients with free or reduced priced prescription drugs not only keeps people healthy, it is also a cost saver in the long run. When people don’t take their drugs, she said they risk ending up having an expensive stay in the hospital.
As much as she’d like to say she has a 100% success rate at obtaining free or reduced price medications for the people she works with, she cannot always do it because some of them don’t meet the financial criteria as outlined by the pharmaceutical companies. But she doesn’t give up without a tremendous amount of research.