On January 4, 2018 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a letter telling drug companies that they are permitted to provide free medication in 2018 to “federal healthcare program beneficiaries who were receiving cost sharing support for those drugs from CVC as of November 28, 2017.” For regulatory reasons drug companies typically only provide assistance to individuals with commercial or private insurance or those who are uninsured. In this case, HHS is making an exception for individuals with Medicare and other federally funded health insurance who were receiving assistance from the Caring Voice Coalition in November 2017. The HHS letter says only that drug companies may provide free medication if they wish, not that they are required to do so. Bloomberg News reported on these developments here.
PHA provides contact information for the companies that manufacture PHA therapies on our website at www.PHAssociation.org/Patients/Insurance/Financial-Assistance.
