Dear colleague,
Thanks to your support, in 2021, PAN helped over 160,000 people who otherwise would not have been able to start or stay on critically-needed medications.
With each year that passes, we grow more committed to ensuring no one goes without care because of cost. In the past few months, we have continued to improve our systems to better support your work.
Last October, we launched a new patient linking feature in our provider and pharmacy portals. Now you can link patients to your account and access important grant details without calling us.
Do you have questions about how to use or manage your portal account? We recently published a library of step-by-step instructions to help you navigate our portals so you can quickly access what you need. You can also browse our webinar library for visual demonstrations.
At PAN, we have a dedicated Medical Affairs team available to provide you with personal support. If you’re new to PAN or need a refresher on our processes, respond to this email, and we’d be happy to coordinate a virtual training session.
No doubt 2022 will bring its share of challenges, but we know that your collaboration will continue to help us carry out our mission. Dedicated healthcare professionals like you make it possible for us to reach people in need all around the country. And we can't thank you enough for that.
Kind regards,
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Ayesha Azam
Vice President of Medical Affairs
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We recently opened four new assistance programs to protect patients from financial toxicity. Will you help us spread the word? Feel free to forward the links below to colleagues who care for patients in need.
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We’ve added several medications to our formulary in the last few months. Review the full list here.
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Actions to take when funds are closed |
We do our best to ensure our funds stay open, but because grants are donation-dependent, you may find that the fund you’re looking for may be closed.
Here are next steps you can take when PAN funds are closed:
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Follow the fund on FundFinder: Our patient assistance app will send you a notification as soon as the fund opens at PAN or eight other charitable foundations.
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Sign up for PAN’s wait list: When funding becomes available for a specific disease fund, individuals on the wait list will be notified by email and have the opportunity to apply before the general public.
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Reminder: Reimbursable services |
PAN gives grants to reimburse your practice for deductible, co-payments, and coinsurance costs related to eligible medications or supplies. PAN is the payer of last resort, so all patients must be insured, and the patient’s insurance must cover their medication.
PAN reimburses all prescription medications in the disease fund formulary, including:
- Brand medications
- Generic medications
- Bioequivalent or biosimilar drugs
- Specialty drugs
- Radiopharmaceuticals
For medical claims, PAN requires that the diagnosis code submitted is covered under the respective disease fund.
To verify diagnosis code coverage and review the list of disease funds and covered medications, visit our Find a Disease Fund page and select the relevant disease fund for more information.
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2021 was a year filled with many needed healthcare advancements as the FDA approved 50 new therapies across many disease types.
To keep up with guideline recommendations, we annually review PAN’s disease fund formularies and any newly indicated drugs as they become available on the market.
Our disease fund formularies cover all FDA-approved prescription medications for the indication or recommended by an evidence-based guideline for the disease state.
For most disease funds, we cover products that treat underlying disease but not side effects or symptomatic treatments. A few of our disease funds include treatments for symptoms and side effects because there are currently limited products available to treat these diseases.
If you have any questions about our coverage, please email me at [email protected]. We value and support the indispensable (pun not intended!) relationship between you and your patients.
Best regards,
Joan Zhang, PharmD
Manager of Medical Affairs
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Portal Pros: Link patients to your account in 4 steps |
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Linking a patient to your account is easy and doesn’t require you to call us. In just seconds, you can link a patient to your account so that you, and all other users in your organization, can access letters PAN sends about their grant details and renew their grant.
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Claims Corner: PAN’s grant use policy |
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PAN’s grant use policy requires you to submit a claim for payment every 120 days to keep your patient’s grant active. If a claim is not submitted during that timeframe, we will cancel the grant and disenroll your patient.
If we disenroll your patient, take these steps for reinstatement:
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Advise our patient support team of the disenrollment by sending us a secure message on the portal or calling us.
- Request a disenrollment reversal and explain the reason for not submitting claims. Please indicate if the request is urgent.
- Submit the request and we will provide a determination within 7 to 10 business days.
Is your patient’s treatment only once or twice a year? Help them keep their grant active by letting us know.
We recognize that your patient’s treatment may not fit within the 120-day timeframes of the grant use policy. If their treatment is only once or twice a year, and you or your patient receives a letter from PAN indicating that their grant must be used soon, please call us. We will take this under consideration.
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Support beyond co-pay assistance |
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Third financial navigation webinar focuses on reducing medical debt |
We hosted part three of our four-part financial navigation webinar series in February.
The third webinar covered strategies to avoid and reduce medical debt, including how to:
- Understand hospital charity care policies
- Identify trusted organizations to refer patients
- Apply for medical debt relief on behalf of patients
We were thrilled to see over 400 healthcare professionals register for the webinar. If you couldn’t attend the event live, don’t worry, we recorded the entire event for you. Click here to replay the webinar anytime.
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PAN’s 2022 healthcare policy priorities |
In January, we announced our 2022 healthcare priorities in the form of seven recommendations to promote healthcare access and affordability:
- Establish a national effort to make healthcare affordable and accessible for all
- Place a cap on out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
- Smooth out-of-pocket costs throughout the year
- Modernize the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (also known as Extra Help) program
- Prohibit co-pay accumulators
- Require public and private insurers to adopt policies that address social determinants of health
- Ensure continued access to telehealth services
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FundFinder celebrates three years and 50,000 users! |
We know how stressful the search for funding can be, and that once awarded, it can be life-changing. That’s why we created FundFinder—a free app that tracks the status of more than 200 funds across nine foundations in one convenient place.
FundFinder launched in 2018, and just three years later, the financial assistance app has surpassed 50,000 users—with patients accounting for 55 percent of users.
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“In my journey with multiple myeloma, FundFinder has been invaluable in locating open funds. I regularly share the app with new blood cancer patients! FundFinder is truly a gift—a resource pointing to funds that makes it financially manageable to navigate life with blood cancers.” - Shaleen Camery-Hoggatt, WA, FundFinder user |
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Transportation assistance for PAN patients |
Did you know we offer a $500 transportation benefit for patients currently enrolled in a co-pay or premium disease fund at PAN?
PAN patients must apply directly for this program, but you can use our eligibility checker to send a pre-filled email with information on applying. Alert your patients now.
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Pharmacy technician Tammy Richardson describes the consequences of expensive co-pays |
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Tammy Richardson is a busy pharmacy technician at Baylor Scott & White Health in Texas.
She frequently sees patients willing to forgo treatment or skip meals when their medication costs become too burdensome.
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On the line with Jackelyn: Meet PAN’s patient and provider representatives |
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Meet Jackelyn, a PAN Patient Support Specialist who joined our team in 2019 and wakes up excited every morning excited knowing she makes a meaningful difference at work.
What’s your most memorable conversation with a patient? A patient called in to obtain co-pay assistance and I informed them that they were eligible to receive funding immediately. They were so happy and emotional because they had a weight lifted off their shoulders. I was glad to hear their smile on the other end of the phone!
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We're exhibiting! Stop by and say hello.
Anaheim, CA
April 27-May 1
Las Vegas, NV
May 2-5
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