PAN Foundation launches patient assistance app FundFinder
For immediate release
PAN Foundation contact:
Liz Eckert, Marketing and Communications Manager
Email: leckert@panfoundation.org
Washington, D.C. (December 20, 2018)—The PAN Foundation has launched FundFinder, a web-based app designed to help underinsured and economically vulnerable patients with life-threatening, chronic or rare diseases quickly find financial assistance from PAN and other charitable foundations.
“FundFinder will enable patients and their healthcare team to receive timely information on the financial support available, so they can start and continue their critical medical treatment,” says President and CEO Dan Klein. “Patients are facing escalating out-of-pocket costs related to their care. Our goal is to make finding financial assistance seamless—so they can focus on their health and wellbeing.”
Until now, patients and their caregivers, healthcare providers and pharmacists had to manually monitor the status of disease funds across charitable patient assistance organizations. FundFinder sends notifications directly to users by email or text message when a fund they follow opens at any of the eight charitable foundations, eliminating the need to manually monitor patient assistance funds.
“Healthcare providers and pharmacists are seeing an increase in patients who need financial assistance to begin or adhere to their treatment protocol,” says Senior Director of Medical Affairs Ayesha Azam. “This app was created to reduce the time they spend monitoring the availability of patient assistance, so they can spend more time treating patients.”
Rising deductibles, premiums and co-pays prevent many patients from being able to afford the critical treatment they need. Recent findings from the Commonwealth Fund indicate that 53 percent of Americans with a serious illness face severe financial consequences, including using all or most of their savings for their care, being unable to pay for necessities like food, heat or housing, or taking out a loan to cover their expenses.
Users can access the free app from any web browser on a desktop computer, tablet or mobile phone. Using the app does not guarantee financial assistance. All patient assistance is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis and subject to each foundation’s criteria.
Sign up for FundFinder here.
About the Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation
The Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation is an independent, national 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to helping federally and commercially insured people living with life-threatening, chronic and rare diseases with the out-of-pocket costs for their prescribed medications. Partnering with generous donors, healthcare providers and pharmacies, PAN provides the underinsured population access to the healthcare treatments they need to best manage their conditions and focus on improving their quality of life. Since its founding in 2004, PAN has provided nearly 1 million underinsured patients with over $3 billion in financial assistance, through close to 70 disease-specific programs.