We're very pleased to announce that we have exceeded our goal in patient savings with our prescription drug cards, and we look forward to doing even more to make medication more affordable in the New Year
Baton Rouge, LA (PRWEB) February 17, 2009
Group Net LLC (http://www.Group-Net.org ) and PatientAssistance.com, Inc (privately funded and supported by Group Net LLC) have released their 2008 patient assistance / patient savings results, 2009 goals, and other advancements in the last year in their efforts to help Americans in need cope with the high cost of prescription medications.
Highlights include:
- The free prescription drug cards issued through http://www.YourRxCard.com and http://www.CountyRxCard.com saved patients over $32 million in 2008 (exceeding the $30 million goal).
- A new patient savings goal for 2009 has been set at an aggressive $50 million. Results for January 2009 are in line with this goal with savings at $3,450,031.42
- Group Net LLC funded the launch of http://www.PatientAssistance.com , a new nonprofit organization and online platform connecting patients with eligible prescription assistance plans offered by pharmaceutical companies.
"We're very pleased to announce that we have exceeded our goal in patient savings with our prescription drug cards, and we look forward to doing even more to make medication more affordable in the New Year," says Group Net LLC President Rex C. Bowden Jr. "Our free prescription drug cards help those who can't afford the full price of their cash prescription purchases, and that's especially important right now with so many Americans fearing job loss and other economic hardships."
Through PatientAssistance.com, the company will be doing even more to help those in need. In addition to connecting people to patient assistance programs with pharmaceutical companies, in the near term the organization will provide cash subsidies to help defray the cost of medications not covered by patient assistance programs.
"Underinsured Americans will receive co-pay assistance," says Bowden. "Subsidies will be based on client income - $15 to $50 based on eligibility and falling within 300% of the poverty line." PatientAssistance.com, Inc. plans to see its cash / co-pay assistance program become it centerpiece, with substantial funding provided by pharmaceutical company partners. The program is designed to help those individuals who ''fall through the cracks'' of traditional patient assistance programs, to help all Americans get the prescription medication they need but cannot afford.
Additional accomplishments of Group Net LLC and PatientAssistance.com, Inc. for the calendar year of 2008 are as follows:
Group-Net, LLC 2008 Record Patient Savings Results
YourRxCard.com and CountyRxCard.com set the goal of saving patients $30 million off of cash prescription purchases using free discount prescription drug cards in our extensive network of 57,000 participating pharmacies for 2008. Actual patient savings exceeded $32 million. Members paid a combined $48 million in cash payments for prescription medication after discounts. Without these discounts they would have paid over $80 million. The average patient prescription savings was $24.62, and 40% off the retail price.
These free prescription drug cards are available to patients, caregivers, and e-prescribers through several methods, including:
- The YourRxCard.com or CountryRxCard.com websites (cards are produced and activated instantly, and can be accessed and printed from any Internet connection).
- Group Net LLC will ship prescription drug cards in bulk lots of 500 to 50,000 pre-printed cards to employers, physicians, hospitals, universities, cities, and counties who distribute the cards to their members, residents, or patients in need of prescription drug assistance.
- YourRxCard.com supports certain private label branded cards and affiliates.
- The prescription drug cards are also now available at over 151 Red Cross chapters nationwide. Patients can go online or visit their local chapter to receive instantly-activated and printed free discount drug cards.
Launch of PatientAssistance.com
Group-Net, LLC provides free administrative support, and has funded over $150,000 to date, for PatientAssistance.com, Inc. PatientAssistance.com is a nonprofit organization and free resource designed to connect patients who can't afford their prescription medications with patient assistance programs offered by pharmaceutical companies. "We believe that medication should be affordable for all Americans, including low-income families and the uninsured," says Bowden. PatientAssistance.com offers an easy to use online database with over 1000 free programs from hundreds of drug manufacturers to help make that belief a reality.
Group-Net, LLC agreed to continue to fund most of the ongoing administrative expenses of PatientAssistance.com in 2009 in order to deliver nearly 100% of donated contributions back to patients thru the service's free benefit platforms.
PatientAssistance.com, Inc. Partnerships and Programs
Google Health -- PatientAssistance.com released a new integrated service on the Google Health platform. This application enables users to automatically search for patient assistance drug programs they are eligible for based on the medications already included in their Google Health profile (without having to manually search for programs for each medication they're prescribed).
National Diabetes Goal -- Patient Assistance released initial findings of a survey on diabetes awareness amongst the predominantly uninsured and underinsured visitors of PatientAssistance.com. Highlights include the fact that more than half of the more than 1000 unique respondents do not know their blood glucose level. The survey is being conducted as a part of the National Diabetes Goal -- making more Americans aware of their blood glucose levels so they can take a more proactive approach to the prevention and treatment of diabetes.
Johns Hopkins / On-site Clinics -- PatientAssistance.com, Inc. is now offering onsite health and wellness clinics to employers. These clinics are designed to provide both occupational and non-occupational healthcare, as well as wellness services for working age individuals. The onsite clinics are staffed and managed by the Johns Hopkins University Department of Occupational Medicine.
About Group Net LLC
Group Net LLC is an organization devoted to getting pharmaceutical companies even more involved in the process of helping those in need. Launched in 2001, the company provides patient e-coupons and a prescription assistance interface which helps individuals get in touch with pharmaceutical companies directly. The Group Net LLC network includes YourRxCard.com (home of their free prescription drug card), PatientAssistance.com (their online platform connecting patients with prescription assistance programs), CountyRxCard.com, CountyDrugCard.com, StateDrugCard.com, and RxVouchers.com.
About PatientAssistance.com, Inc.
PatientAssistance.com is a nonprofit organization providing information on thousands of patient assistance programs to help users better manage and reduce prescription drug costs. Users can search by medication or for specific patient assistance programs, which are updated on a regular basis. The site offers patients a variety of tools including local drug pricing information, the ability to track programs the user is currently enrolled in, and reminders when patients need to resubmit enrollment forms to the pharmaceutical manufacturers. PatientAssistance.com helps consumers find patient assistance programs, access enrollment forms, and track their re-enrollments all in one place.
For more information about patient assistance services, please visit http://www.PatientAssistance.com. For more information about Group Net LLC or its network of sites and services, please visit http://www.Group-Net.org, or contact Rex Bowden at 225-266-7941.
Contact:
Rex Bowden
Group Net LLC
11608 Darryl Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70815
Phone: 225-266-7941
Web: http://www.Group-Net.org / http://www.PatientAssistance.com
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