USC-Kershaw Primary Care Education Program and Sentinel Health Partners

 Many senior citizens are finding that Medicare does not cover all of their escalating medication costs. One outcome is that pharmaceutical companies have been mandated to provide a percent of their production as free medications to those who cannot afford them. However, the program is not simple, as each company requires that participants meet different standards and complete different applications. Many rural primary care practices do not have the staff nor time to complete the extended application process and the result is that only a few patients use the program. The education center associated with the physicians at the Sentinel Health Partners is staffed with a health educator, a social worker and several social work graduate students and has established an expanded medication assistance program. Social workers have assembled the various pharmaceutical company applications and work with physician-directed patients to help them complete applications and receive the prescription drugs as they are delivered to the physician's office. Training on the complicated process is provided to eligible patients which reduces the burden on the staff. Well over $50,000 in prescription drugs were received through this program by patients at the Sentinel Health Partners. The program increases the numbers of seniors who are able to obtain and take their medications on a regular basis and reduces their required number of office visits.

For further information contact Dr. Duncan Howe at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (803-733-3322) or Terrance Strater, RN at the Kershaw Community Health Education Center 212 East Marion Street, Kershaw, SC 29067, 803-475-4402.

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