Category: Social Media and Healthcare

Drug Discount Card, Health, NeedyMeds, Social Media and Healthcare
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NeedyMeds in 2017

We’re wrapping up 2017 here at NeedyMeds, and it’s been a big year for us. We celebrated twenty years of providing information to those in need and we have kept true to our original mission to provide information on programs that help people who can’t afford medications and healthcare costs.   We have helped over 57,000 on our toll-free helpline in 2017, and saved users over $44 million on their prescriptions with the NeedyMeds Drug Discount Card. This year we began a new partnership with Healthcare Storylines to bring you the NeedyMeds Storylines app—a free self-care smartphone app that makes […]

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Healthcare Reform, Medicine Safety, Prescription Drugs, Safety, Social Media and Healthcare, Technology
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Patient Safety Advocates Oppose Foreign Online Pharmacies

Last summer the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP Global) launched a campaign to raise awareness of counterfeit drugs from foreign online pharmacies.  This year, they have drafted a letter to the U.S. Congress to encourage them to oppose proposals that allow American consumers to buy Health Canada-approved medication from “legitimate” Canadian online pharmacies. Buying medications from other countries has been an idea proposed to combat the high cost of prescriptions in the United States. Starting in 1999 politicians began filling buses with senior constituents and driving them to Canada, starting with then-Representative Bernie Sanders from Vermont. The seniors would […]

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Awareness, Health, Patient Assistance, Social Media and Healthcare
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Ice Bucket Challenge Funds ALS Breakthrough

Almost two years ago, the Ice Bucket Challenge filled social media feeds with videos and ALS research with donations.  The Challenge prompted athletes, celebrities, Internet personalities, and everyday people to post a video and donate to ALS research.  This year, funds raised from the Challenge are being credited with allowing researchers to identify a common gene found to contribute to the disease.   ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting the function of nerves and muscles that eventually leads to a wasting paralysis.  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis affects 30,000 Americans with the condition at any given time, […]

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Awareness, Cancer, NeedyMeds, Patient Assistance, Pediatrics, Social Media and Healthcare
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Resources for Childhood Cancer

In 2012, President Obama declared September National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  Social media has taken to many users posting pictures of comic book heroes in an effort to spread awareness of childhood cancer throughout the month. For many, September is a time to honor and remember families affected by these rare diseases and raise support to find treatments and cures.  Every year, 15,780 children under 21 years old are diagnosed with cancer in the US. It is estimated that 25% of them will not survive.  NeedyMeds has information on programs that offer various kinds of assistance for children, their families, […]

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HEALfundr, Social Media and Healthcare
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FTC Goes After Crowdfunding Fraud – How HEALfundr is Immune

In previous blog posts, we have detailed a relatively new method for fundraising for medical expenses called crowdfunding along with our own crowdfunding platform, HEALfundr. Recently, there has been some news regarding the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a crowdfunding project that made us want to touch upon some key differences between HEALfundr and other crowdfunding platforms.   This month, the FTC formally charged the creator of a Kickstarter campaign with deception by spending crowd-raised funds on himself and unrelated projects instead of the board game represented in his campaign. Using the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, intended for creative or entrepreneurial […]

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About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.