Attorney General's News Release
February 27, 2008
$630,000 in grants available to help link seniors, low-income Missourians with free or low-cost prescription drugs
Jefferson City, Mo. — Attorney General Jay Nixon today encouraged organizations that work with seniors and low-income residents to apply for a portion of $630,000 in technology grants that will help them coordinate the prescription drug needs of hundreds of thousands of Missourians with dozens of free and reduced-cost drug programs offered by manufacturers. The grant money comes from a settlement Nixon reached on Feb. 14 with Caremark Rx LLC, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits management (PBM) companies.
“Missouri has more than 700,000 uninsured citizens, and many thousands more who qualify for some insurance, but still have nearly an impossible time affording the prescription medicines they need,” Nixon said. “At the same time, there are nearly 200 free and reduced-cost drug programs offered by individual manufacturers for specific medications. But these programs can be hard to find, confusing to use, or not easily accessible to seniors or people with low income. These grants will help provide a single source of access to this information — a gateway to prescription drugs that are already available.”
Nixon said the grants would enable organizations that work with seniors and low-income residents to purchase one- or two-year licenses to use already available software, which coordinates linking prescription drug patients with matching free or low-cost drug programs from manufacturers. They then would be able to quickly search drug manufacturers’ free and reduced-cost programs to find matches for patients’ needs. The grants also can be used to obtain any needed hardware or training.
Any organization that wants to apply for grants from Nixon’s Prescription Drug Access Technology Initiative should do so through the Attorney General’s Web site, ago.mo.gov, or should obtain a hard copy of the application by calling the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-392-8222. Applications must be submitted no later than March 21, 2008.
“The need is the same all across the state but, as with most health-care issues, the best possible solution may vary from region to region,” Nixon said. “We are very excited by the results we’ve already seen: a regional project of this type in northeast Missouri generated more than $1 million in free and reduced-cost prescription drugs in just two years.”