Just received notice, out of the blue, from “Healthwell Foundation” that a prostate cancer grant amount of $8k has been approved. It includes a “Healthwell Foundation” pharmacy card. Anyone ever hear of this outfit? It smells like a scam to me. From NYTimes:
But co-pay foundations are not without their detractors, who worry that they are little more than ways for drug makers to sustain their high prices by funneling patients enough money to meet their co-payments, while letting insurers pick up most of the bill.
Federal laws against kickbacks bar pharmaceutical companies from directly giving money to patients for co-payments on the drugs they make. But HealthWell and other co-payment charities can effectively avoid that stricture by soliciting money from companies to be spent on very narrow categories of disease -- like cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, a very rare form of skin cancer -- for which only one or two treatments exist
For example, the primary drug treatment for cutaneous lymphoma is nitrogen mustard, whose price recently increased about tenfold, to roughly $700 a dose. Ovation Pharmaceuticals, which markets nitrogen mustard, is one of HealthWell's donors.
HealthWell and the other co-pay charities do not routinely disclose their donors, though Mr. Weiner confirmed Ovation's sponsorship in response to a question. But Mr. Weiner said that nearly all the money that HealthWell raises comes from drug companies. "It's an awkward situation," he said.
The awkwardness may not end there, because HealthWell is not a typical charity. It was created in 2004 by Covance, a for-profit health care consulting company based in Princeton, N.J., whose business includes conducting clinical trials for drug makers. Covance had $1.3 billion in sales last year.
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They do have a program that covers some $ help for multiple drugs for prostate cancer, for qualified individuals, potentially up to the amount you mentioned, for USA Medicare patients only.
They have a Contacts page, which has an email address for specific Grants, Claims, and Pharmacy Card questions. (Could a doctor/provider/pharmacy have signed you up?)
Yes, we were just approved for a Healthwell grant to help with the cost of my husband’s PC meds (Zytiga/Abiraterone).
Our specialty pharmacy knew about them and suggested it. As the NYT articles correctly explains, one must be on Medicare and also have part D of Medicare to apply. We also needed to give them proof of our (low) income via 2019 tax forms. And I filled out their online application on their website and chatted with someone there on the phone,
We did not receive a card, apparently it went to the pharmacy, but the grant money directly defrays the cost of the drug. They stipulated the Zytiga over the Abiraterone (generic, cheaper version), which I found a bit odd. We were just mailed the Zytiga from our pharmacy. But now our pharmacy said they want to switch over to the latter one...the Abiraterone. So I need to get a new dr’s script.
The points that your NYT’s article brought up all crossed my mind as well, as there is no incentive to bring the shocking cost of these drugs down. I’m guessing that the money is a tax right-off from various corps...But sometimes it’s best not to look the gift horse in the mouth. I did ask them if it could be used in conjunction with a GoodRx card, they said no. And perhaps because it’s not cash places like Walmart would take the pharma card anyway.
It is curious that you received a card without applying for it... hmmm. In any case, this is my experience with them. I’ll let you know if I run into any glitches. They appear reputable. But if I get a big bill I’ll let you know!
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