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Hotline
cuts drug bill for seniors
By David Hammer
Russellville
Courier, September 02, 2003
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A little
brainstorming and charitable spirit helped a health sciences professor and
his students do something that presidential and congressional task forces
couldn’t: help the elderly afford prescription drugs.
Marshel Davis of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock says a hot line
his class established tracked existing discounts that saved 700 Arkansas
seniors a total of $100,000.
It started last fall, when Davis suggested a few of his students use their
Internet skills to help elderly family members and friends find discount
drug programs — and complete their class projects at the same time.
In January, they set up a hot line, the Prescription Assistance Line for
Seniors (PALS). Without a lick of advertising, the number of applicants
grew to 350 in two months and doubled to 700 over four months.
Janea Hightower, a senior from the Little Rock suburb of Jacksonville,
jumped at the chance to help her family and neighbors when Davis suggested
the hot line.
“After telling a few more seniors ... about it, the word began to spread
and now the phones are ringing off the hook,” she said.
The three-person PALS staff helps participants apply for programs like
pharmaceutical company discount cards, check on whether they’ve received
the medications and renew their program applications.
Davis, Hightower and another student, Teresa Anders, of El Dorado, staff
the hot line 81/2 hours a day and spend an average of three hours helping
each participant.
Davis said they have been able to find $150 in savings for the average
participant — savings that many seniors, particularly those in rural
states like Arkansas, are never aware of because many seniors don’t
access the Internet.
PALS is linked to three major discount card programs through the
Volunteers in Health Care program, a nonprofit resource for health-care
providers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s pharmacies and others have similar
discount services, but they are tied to contracts with individual
pharmaceutical companies, which limits their options, he said.
Some Arkansas seniors say they were wary of PALS’ free help and still
don’t understand where the savings are coming from, but are thankful
nonetheless.
“I sent for something in the AARP Magazine, and the next thing I knew,
Mr. Davis called me,” said 75-year-old Marie Dille, of Sherwood.
“It’s been such a godsend for me, that I had to tell my friends.”
One of those friends is her Sunday school classmate, 76-year-old Jean
Naramore, of North Little Rock. The widow is on a fixed income, but needs
to take pills every day for arthritis, thyroid, heartburn, hormonal
imbalance, depression and heart and lung problems.
She spent $200 every month on her heartburn and depression medication
alone. PALS helped her get 30-day supplies of each for free.
“I wasn’t fortunate enough to have prescription drug coverage when I
retired,” she said. “When I first heard about this from Marie, I
thought, ‘Congress can’t do anything; how do you think you could?’
But if Congress would just listen and see this, they could get a program
like this for everyone.”
Davis said PALS could be a model for local or state-based programs, but
nothing like that has happened because prescription drug coverage has
become a “political football” for legislators.
“I would hope we could shut down tomorrow if Congress came up with some
kind of help, but the plans they are considering now will do more harm
than good,” he said, referring to competing House and Senate bills that
want to increase benefits for seniors but could privatize Medicare.
“They don’t seem to realize that it depends on whether people know how
to access the discounts. Some dinky $200 or $600 credit a year won’t
help.”
Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry, the only licensed pharmacist in Congress,
applauded the students’ efforts and agreed that the current Medicare
drug coverage could do more harm than good. He is one of 17 members of
Congress on a committee charged with consolidating the House and Senate
bills.
“It will be better not to have a bill than to have a bad bill,” he
said. “If we don’t have price controls, it will be like taking half
off a $100 shotgun, but marking it up to $250 first.”
Newman McGee, chairman of the Health Sciences Department at the
university, said PALS can’t meet the demand without outside funding.
The department has already purchased new computers and spends more than
$2,000 a month on student wages and postage.
“We’d like to see someone jump in with us because this could be very
big,” McGee said. “We have (another doctor) looking for grants, but
we’ve really been holding the elephant’s tail to keep him off the
freeway. We’re just flabbergasted to find out that these people are not
being served at this level.”
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© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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