Grant to cover Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday she will use a two-year $3 million grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to administer a plan that would provide prescription drugs to low-income individuals.
Lingle drug plan
The Weinberg Foundation
will donate $3 million
to cover administration
By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.comThe money will pay for services to link patients to various pharmaceutical company assistance programs that provide free medication and also establish a call center for physicians to request the drugs.
The plan, called Prescription Care Hawaii, is modeled on Maui's IndieCare Program, which began at Maui Memorial Hospital in 2001. That program currently serves around 600 patients.
Lingle said she hoped the new program would reach around 20,000 patients in its first year.
"We expect the entire program to be implemented within six months," she said.
The new plan will be administered through the 12 hospitals that make up the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. and the five outpatient clinics of the Hawaii State Primary Care Association.
But it will be headquartered at the offices of the Hawaii Medical Association, which will provide a call center so hospitals and physicians can call in to request a particular drug.
The state Health Department will have overall oversight of the program and will produce an annual report on its operations, Lingle said.
Lingle said the new program is a stop-gap measure to fill a need until the U.S. Congress comes up with its own plan.
"We anticipate Congress will take action either this year or next year," Lingle said.
Under the Maui plan, doctors and facilities submit applications on behalf of patients -- most of who are low-income and elderly, said Karin Hokoana, a pharmacy technician at Maui Memorial who has been with the program since its inception.
Hokoana interviews prospective participants in the plan and fills out the necessary paperwork which is then submitted to individual pharmaceutical companies for approval.
Most of Hokoana's clients are seniors on fixed incomes who cannot afford the cost of many of the drugs they must take, she said.
For example, Lipitor and Zocor, drugs commonly prescribed to reduce cholesterol levels, would cost around $70 a month for 30 tablets, she said.
Because approval for assistance can take up to six weeks, patients who are waiting also have access to an existing "medicine chest" of medications and nutritional supplements donated by pharma- ceutical companies.