8/9/07
‘Help Is Here Express’ bus offers free, easy and confidential Rx assistance
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

You may have seen this colorfully decorated bus parked near the County Courthouse last Thursday. It was the Partnership for Prescription Assistance’s “Here’s Help Express,” on its way to a health fair in Santee. The PPA program offers prescription assistance through the bus, its website or a toll-free number. More than 4 million Americans have recewived assistance to date.

You may have seen the large, orange bus parked near the courthouse last Thursday or even seen it lumbering through town.

The “Help is Here Express” bus was on its way to Santee to participate in the James E. Clyburn Research and Scholarship Foundation’s I-95 Corridor Health Fair to help uninsured and underinsured Americans find programs that provide prescription medicines for free or nearly free. It stopped in Manning to share the good news with The Manning Times and to leave literature around the county.

The bus tour is part of the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), a national effort sponsored by America’s pharmaceutical research companies. The PPA has helped more than 4 million patients, including nearly 90,000 in South Carolina. Since its launch in April 2005, the PPA bus tour has visited all 50 states (even Alaska and Hawaii) and more than 1,500 cities to raise awareness about patient assistance programs.

The “Help is Here Express” is staffed by trained specialists able to quickly help low-income, uninsured or underinsured patients access more than 475 patient assistance programs including over 180 programs offered by pharmaceutical companies. Though the bus has no scheduled stops in Clarendon County, patients in need can visit PPA’s easy-to-use Web site (www.pparx.org) or call the toll-free phone number (1-888-4PPA-NOW) where trained operators field calls in150 languages. Free Internet access is available at the Clarendon County Library for those without computers.

Through the PPA, parents, guardians, healthcare providers and others can learn about public and private patient assistance programs – including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) – that are available to help children in need. America’s pharmaceutical research companies support the reauthorization of SCHIP, and more than 40 of the assistance programs through the PPA focus on the medication and healthcare needs of children. Through SCHIP, more than six million uninsured, low-income children today receive a wide range of health services, including regular checkups, immunizations, prescription drugs, laboratory tests, x-rays, hospital visits and more. To help make it easier for parents to learn about these efforts, including SCHIP, the PPA has dedicated a new Web site, http://kids.pparx.org.

“The Partnership for Prescription Assistance is changing thousands of lives everyday,” said Billy Tauzin, President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). “No one’s helped by a medicine that sits on the shelf and is out of reach financially. We will keep coming back to South Carolina as long as there are people who need our help.”

On a national level, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance is represented by Emmy-winning syndicated talk show host Montel Williams, named PPA’s national spokesman in January 2006. In addition, nationally recognized Telemundo talk show host and author Mayte Prida leads the PPA’s Hispanic outreach effort.

“I am so pleased PPA will have its ‘Help is Here Express’ bus at the 1-95 Corridor Health Fair to assist local residents who really need help obtaining prescription drugs,” Congressman Jim Clyburn said. “There are 720,000 South Carolinians without health insurance, who struggle to pay their bills and can’t afford medication. The service PPA provides is invaluable to bettering their health and their quality of life.”

More than 1,300 national, state and local partners, including the American Diabetes Association, Coalition for New South Carolinians, CommuniCare and NAMI in South Carolina, are working with America’s pharmaceutical companies to spread the word about the program. Trained specialists work with doctors, pharmacists, healthcare providers and community groups, educating them on the process and use of the PPA’s easy-access Web site and toll-free number.

Over 2,500 different brand name and generic prescription medicines are available through participating patient assistance programs. In addition, the PPA provides information on nearly 10,000 free healthcare clinics and has connected more than 135,000 patients with clinics and healthcare providers in their communities.

“‘We’re excited that the ‘Help is Here Express’ is in South Carolina,” said Mahogany Graham of the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council. “Now even more people will see how easy it is to get help by calling PPA’s toll-free number, using the Web site or by visiting the bus. And that translates to more people getting the help they need.”