Individuals living with serious illness are often faced with financial stress. Insurance co-pays, out of pocket expenses or non-covered medical expenses can add up. Get Palliative Care – an online resource for patients and families recently put together a list of 12 non-profits that want to help reduce financial strain for those living with serious illness. They are:
- American Kidney Fund helps people with kidney disease with health insurance premiums, transportation costs, prescription medications, and other health-related needs.
- CancerCare offers limited financial assistance for cancer-related costs and co-pays for treatments, and offers social workers to help connect you with additional resources.
- Dollar For reduces medical bills by helping patients access “charity care” within hospitals, which offers discounts or bill forgiveness programs based on income.
- Family Reach helps people living with cancer, and their loved ones, with non-medical expenses (e.g., housing, transportation, food, and more).
- Good Days provides financial support for people living with serious illness, assisting with co-pays, transportation costs, premiums, and diagnostic testing.
- HealthWell Foundation fills the gap by assisting with health insurance co-pays, premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses.
- NeedyMeds provides a database of financial assistance programs to help offset medication costs and other health care expenses (e.g., prescription assistance programs, coupons, rebates, etc.).
- Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation offers financial assistance to help with out-of-pocket treatment costs.
- Patient Advocate Foundation offers a searchable directory of national and regional resources dedicated to improving access to care and decreasing the financial burden of medical treatment.
- Pink Fund provides financial assistance for non-medical, cost-of-living expenses (e.g., housing, transportation, and utilities) for people with breast cancer who are in active treatment.
- The Assistance Fund helps patients and families with out-of-pocket treatment costs for nearly 100 diseases.
- Triage Health offers education on the legal and practical issues related to navigating a serious illness, and offers a toolkit to help patients find the financial resources they need.
