Looking Forward to 2015

2014 was an exciting year for us. We grew in many ways: more staff, new programs, new information, and increasing savings with our drug discount card. We are looking forward to even more in 2015.

Here are just a few of the changes we expect to see:

• $4 generic drug information — Very soon we will be adding information on all the “$4 generic” programs in the country. The name – “$4 generic” – is a little misleading. It will include all the pharmacy programs that offer very inexpensive or even free medicines.
• Generic Assistance Program — We are looking to expand the program to cover more people. To do this we need your help. You can make a donation on our HEALfundr campaign or by signing the “Access Our Medicine” declaration. Each signer we get results in another 50¢ for GAP.
• Access Our Medication — We are proud to be working with the Mindset Foundation to publicize the problem of medication affordability. They have many events planned for 2015 and NeedyMeds will be a part of them.
• Imaging Studies Database — You will be hearing more and more about medical consumerism in 2015. NeedyMeds will be helping people make sound financial healthcare decisions. Our first step will be our Imaging Studies database. It will contain the cash prices for 20 common outpatient x-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound procedures at centers across the country. This database will appear soon and we will be adding more centers every day.
• Hepatitis C testing facilities — By partnering with the Hep C Alliance of Missouri, we will be listing low- or no cost sources of hepatitis C testing throughout the country.
• HEALfundr — We expect to see more use of our medical crowdfunding website. We are working on a number of campaigns to add.
• Volunteer Ambassador Program — We hope to expand our cadre of volunteers who help spread the word about NeedyMeds and all we offer.
• Heightened visibility — Our goal is to double the number of daily visitors from 8,000-10,000 each workday.
• A new office — We have outgrown our current office and plan on moving to an office three times the size by March.
• Call center expansion — We will be adding more staff to our call center so we can better handle all the helpline calls we receive.
• Drug Discount Card — The growth of our card and the savings it provides continues to grow. We expect this to continue in 2015.

I could go on as we have a lot more planned—but I won’t. To accomplish our goals we need your help and support.  The most important thing you can do is tell your friends, family, colleagues, doctors; share NeedyMeds with just about anyone.

But we need more than that—we need your financial support. Sign the “Access Our Medicine” declaration. Each signature gets us a small donation. If you can afford it, make a donation to NeedyMeds or a HEALfundr campaign. Use our drug discount card to save on your prescriptions and help support us.

2014 was a good year for us, but 2015 will be even better.

Rich Sagall, MD, a retired family physician, is the president and founder of NeedyMeds, a national non-profit that has information on programs that help people in medical need. He is also the editor and publisher of Pediatrics for Parents, a children’s health newsletter.