Medication & Co-Pay Assistance

Last Modified: May 2, 2010

Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"

My oncologist prescribed chemotherapy “pills”. The medication is very expensive and my co pay is in the hundreds of dollars. Is there any financial assistance with co pays for medications?

Tracy Lautenbach, MSW, LCSW, Social Worker in the Radiation Oncology Department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, responds:

There are several organizations that assist with co-pays for medications: Cancer Care, Together Rx Access, PAF’s co-pay relief program and Partnership for Prescription Assistance, just to name a few. The American Cancer Society has help also. They have 300.00 available to pay for any cancer medication prescribed during treatment.

For people without prescription coverage, many Pharmaceutical companies have Patient Assistance Programs that can provide medications at little or no cost. Ask your physician, nurse or pharmacist who the manufacturer of the drug is and check to see if a PAP is available. A very helpful resource to check this is Needy Meds.

Once you complete a PAP application, the physician will need to sign it and provide financial documents. The company will arrange to ship the medication to either the patient or the physician’s office for the patient. There are income guidelines for all of these programs.

See our resource list for more resources.

This question and answer was part of the OncoLink Brown Bag Chat Series, Legal & Financial Challenges Facing People with Cancer. View the entire transcript here.