Uncompensated care is the #1 concern of hospital CEO’s by industry polls. Uncompensated care is medical care the uninsured receive but do not pay fully themselves. It includes charity care, reduced-fee care and bad debts. The gap between Medicare/Medicaid and the insured is widening with people who do not qualify for government subsidized health insurance yet who cannot afford or are not offered private health insurance. Increased joblessness and increasing numbers of employers who do not offer health insurance contribute to this increasing gap. The opportunity to recover or avoid some of these costs is where Drug Assistant can help.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers, as part of their “give back” to society or their “corporate social responsibility” initiatives, offer patient assistant programs (PAP’s) or manufacturer assistant programs (MAP’s) that allow doctors or clinics to recover the cost of drugs issued to indigent patients. The dollar amount of recovery or cost avoidance can easily be six figures and in large rural or urban hospitals can reach into the millions! The guidelines for qualifying as indigent and the list of drugs available for indigent recovery change frequently and vary from each drug manufacturer. Paperwork is required to be filed with the manufacturer confirming, via doctor signature, that the drugs were issued and certifying that the patient receiving the drugs is in fact indigent.

Most integrated pharmacy management software systems include a module for recovering the cost of drugs issued to indigent patients. While any recovery is viewed as a success, most recovery administrators don't realize that they aren't maximizing their recovery efforts. Drug Assistant is the management tool to identify and qualify patients for the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s assistance programs. The collection of the both the data required to complete the PAP applications and the necessary documents proving the patient falls under the manufacturer’s guidelines, as well as managing the submission tracking process and receipt of medications is very difficult. Drug Assistant reduces the labor intensive component of the indigent drug recovery process.

Drug Assistant, the industry’s leading software for recovering the cost of indigent drugs, was developed by Mike Fisher, with years of knowledge in pharmacy and experience while working at a large hospital pharmacy. The software was wildly successful, recovering more than $30 million in 6 years. Thereafter, the software was marketed to other hospitals. As the internet evolved, developers ported Drug Assistant to the web, making access and software maintenance more efficient for client hospitals and clinics.

Drug Assistant offers these benefits over existing integrated pharmacy management modules:

• Current drug information through an exclusive relationship with Needy Meds (the most popular web site for assisting patients with drug cost recovery)
• Full database capabilities for entering, updating, and archiving indigent patient information
• Full database capabilities for entering, updating, and archiving drug information issued to indigent patients
• Printed, current and completed forms for signature and filing with drug manufacturers
• The ability to track recovery forms filed
• The ability to “receive” against a recovery form, validating receipt of the drug into inventory
• Significant reporting tools for optimizing recovery
• Multi-site Management (MSM) capability for administrative oversight
• Customizable for specific health system’s needs
• The ability to “scrub” hospital data, identifying eligible patients and potential recoverable prescription medications maximizing the return and minimizing the effort. This is accomplished by linking DrugAssistant to your in-house computer system(s).
  

These initiatives often fail or are less successful than expected because one offering won’t fit every facility’s needs. Drug Assistant has identified opportunities for improvement and developed Web Advanced.   This offering helps facilities navigate the complexities of restocking programs - addressing charity care holistically. The integrated software and support program has the capacity to manage all manufacturers’ giveback programs including Inpatient Drug Restocking, Infusion Programs and Patient Assistance. We realize each facilities objective are unique so regardless of the objectives or initiatives we can develop a program that best addresses the particular needs of each facility. Web Advanced combines expertise, active support, onsite training and sophisticated software to work with your internal billing systems to identify opportunities and automate much of the process that limits providers from fully benefiting from these programs.

Drug Assistant will analyze the needs and establish the ROI for each facility. After implementation, regularly scheduled meetings are held to measure performance, opportunities for improvement and any additional resources required. 

Drug Assistant can help you restock meds given to the indigent creating a substantial reduction in charity care spending. We can then support a maintenance med program for outpatients and those who need help after leaving your facility. This is a best practice and the only way to address both patient care cost and the cost of meds given to the indigent. This approach will actually reduce hospital visits by the indigent. Please ask us about a case study that shows reduction in self-pay E.R. visit by 31.85% and reduction in Hospital Admissions of 46.03% respectively. The program fees are affordable for any facility needing a reasonable flat monthly fee. Fees for this program depend on number of locations and scope.

Both options are optimized with well trained and focused Patient Advocates. In many cases hospitals don't have the resources to add FTEs to the payroll. Drug Assistant will staff Patient Advocate positions with professionals, trained in both hospitality and drug recovery.

Drug Assistant has a multi-year service agreement with the 340B Prime Vendor Program (PVP) managed by Apexus. Additional fee discount is available to 340B PVP member hospitals and clinics.