If you think you might qualify
for IMI's RX Project, please call 940.322.1365 to schedule
an interview with our RX counselor at 1006 Eleventh Street,
Wichita Falls, TX
These items are required
for acceptance into the project:
Purpose:
The project pays a portion of the monthly prescription bills
of individuals with chronic illnesses, whose fixed incomes
are insufficient to meet their needs.
Qualifications:
Individuals are chronically ill and/or disabled with incomes
of $800-$1,000 or less per month and receive all the assistance
from government and private sources for which they are eligible.
For applicants with incomes over $1,000 per month, the severity
of the illness is considered, along with the total of other
fixed expenses in the household.
History:
The project was established in August, 1986. It has assisted
460 persons and provided more than $639,000 for life-sustaining
prescription medication since 1986, sustaining human relationships
while saving lives.
Scope of
Assistance: As many as 125 persons can receive assistance
on an ongoing basis. Maximum amount of assistance is $125
per month.
Funding:
The Prescription Project is funded completely by designated
gifts. Local foundations, individuals, civic groups and churches
in the community support the program. Twelve percent of each
donation to the Prescription Project is directed to covering
operating costs of Interfaith Ministries and the Prescription
Project.
Operations:
The project allocates up to $125 per month to each client,
whose monthly prescription bills average $200 to $300. Prescription
Project clients telephone Interfaith when they need prescriptions
filled, and orders are forwarded to a local pharmacy, which
provides prescriptions at a reduced rate to Interfaith Ministries
and provides free home delivery for the clients. The pharmacy
also takes advantage of free prescription programs from various
pharmaceutical companies to supplement the prescriptions that
IMI pays for. Interfaith Ministries has made a commitment
to the clients on the Prescription Project to help them as
long as they are in need. Requests for help to pay for life-sustaining
medications come in each month.
Benefits:
The medications provided are essential to the survival of
the clients. Clients are less inclined to take less than prescribed
amounts of medications in order to save money needed for food,
utilities or rent. The Prescription Project benefits the community
by reducing emergency room and hospital costs for clients
whose health remains stable.
Other Sources
of Assistance: Other sources for prescription assistance
are available, but are very limited, and don't meet all needs.
Most Prescription Project clients already receive assistance
from one or more of these sources, and still find it impossible
to meet all their prescription needs.
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Medicaid:
State government program,
· Supplies up to three prescriptions per month
to persons who are disabled with incomes of less than
$550 per month
· Supplies unlimited medications to persons over
age 65 living in nursing homes with incomes of less
than $1,500 per month
Patient
Assistance Programs
· Various programs offered by pharmaceutical
corporations to supply brand-name medications to low-income
individuals
· Require cooperation from individual's physician,
and paperwork (different for each corporation) to be
completed, sometimes each month
· Some prescriptions only provided for limited
time period
Wichita
County Human Services Supplies up to three prescriptions
per month to:
· Persons receiving income of no more than $350
per month from employment
· Persons receiving income of no more than $150
per month from Social Security
Community
Healthcare Center Pharmacy Supplies basic medications
only to patients of the Center at a sliding scale fee
based on patient's income. Minimum prescription cost
is $10. A Class D pharmacy, which does not carry all
medications, and does not carry controlled or narcotic
drugs.
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Who benefits
from the Prescription Project?
· Elderly persons who are not disabled and are not
eligible for Medicaid. Their fixed incomes are not sufficient
to pay for all their medications
· Elderly and younger persons who are disabled, and
take more prescriptions than the three that Medicaid supplies.
Their fixed incomes are not sufficient to pay for the additional
medications they need
· Medically indigent persons being served by the County
Human Services who take more prescriptions than the three
that the County supplies. They have no way to pay for the
additional medications.
· Persons who are established patients of specialists.
It is often not in their best interest to leave the doctor
who is familiar with their condition to become a patient at
the Community Health Care center just to get some prescriptions
at a lower cost.
· Prescription Project clients receive prescriptions
through the Patient Assistance Programs that the pharmaceutical
corporations provide. The Prescription Project pharmacy contacts
the doctors and completes the paperwork for the clients.
..........Interfaith
Ministries, Inc.