United Way of St. Joseph County Helps Decrease Prescription Costs

Jan. 31, 2013 - PRLog -- As of December 31, 2012, the FamilyWize-United Way partnership with local pharmacies has saved people living or working in this area more than $1,689,507 on everyday prescription costs for conditions such as asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and many others.

“Lowering the cost of prescription drugs allows more people to get the medicine they need when they need it,” said Kay Ball of United Way of St. Joseph County. “The amount patients save on the cost of complications, disease progression and additional health related expenses are far greater than just the savings on the medicine.  This program impacts health and also financial stability, two building blocks of advancing the common good. That’s why we’ve partnered with FamilyWize to distribute free prescription discount cards to everyone in our area. It’s wonderful that almost every local pharmacy participates in this program that helps our community so much.”

Savings on medications can be as much as 75% with the free FamilyWize prescription discount card. Nationwide, more than 5 million people have been helped and more than $448 million has been saved. The card requires no enrollment or activation. Consumers just give the card to their pharmacists every time a prescription is needed and discounts are automatically applied.

“The FamilyWize card provides immediate savings on prescription medicines and can make a difference in staying healthy. We hope everyone will help spread the word to their family and friends about this important free help,” said Ellen Imber, Vice-President Community Outreach for the FamilyWize Community Service Partnership.

“The cards can be used by everyone in the community, not just people without insurance,” Ball said. “They can even be used by people with insurance who have high deductibles, those who take medicine not covered by their plan, or by people with Medicaid or Medicare when their prescription isn’t covered,” Ball added.

The FamilyWize-United Way Card is easy to use, free, for immediate and unlimited use, for use by anyone, accepted at every chain pharmacy and most independent pharmacies, and requires no enrollment of personal information.

People can contact United Way of St. Joseph County to get a card, text “family” to 700700 for a text version of the card or visit www.myUW211.org to print a card and compare discounted drug prices at the different participating pharmacies.

The FamilyWize Community Service Partnership, established in 2005 by Dan and Susan Barnes, was initially created to reduce the cost of prescriptions for people living and working in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. The local United Way later coordinated distribution of these cards. When United Ways in other communities heard about the program, they started asking for cards for their communities because its unique model provides both transparency and lowest possible prices for prescription medicine. More than 50,000 community and faith-based organizations, county agencies, doctors, pharmacies, companies, and individuals across the country are now joined together in this partnership to distribute free FamilyWize prescription drug discount cards in their communities, reducing the cost of medicine for people in 96% of counties in the United States. For more information, please visit FamilyWize.org/about-us (http://familywize.org/about-discount-prescription-card-co...).

United Way of St. Joseph County is a nonprofit organization working to advance the common good by focusing on education, income and health. It works closely with 23 local agency programs to meet the community needs of St. Joseph County.