Category: NeedyMeds

Donate to Keep Us Talking

According to a September 2023 United States Census Bureau report, a staggering 26 million people are uninsured; per a January 2024 Forbes article, 43% of working-age adults are inadequately insured. Every month our helpline counselors answer 2,200+ calls from such vulnerable individuals seeking affordable healthcare. In their honor, this month, we’ve kicked off our Keep Us Talking fundraiser to ensure our helpline remains free of charge. This campaign isn’t just about a toll-free phone number; it’s about tearing down barriers that block the path to wellness: Limited finances Many individuals who utilize services like NeedyMeds are already facing financial hardship due […]

Rural Hospital Closures: What That Means For You

Accessing essential healthcare is a challenge many low-income individuals face, especially for those living in rural areas where hospital closures have become a distressing trend. Around 200 rural hospitals have closed or cut services since 2005, as per data from the Sheps Center. Even more concerning, this trend shows no signs of slowing down.  Over 600 rural hospitals may close in the near future because they don’t make enough money to pay for the increasing cost of treating patients. The impact of these hospital closures on the communities they serve is nothing short of devastating. The repercussions of hospitals closing in […]

NeedyMeds Spotlight: Take Charge of Estate Planning with Plan for Passing On

Every year, the month of August marks an important and often overlooked event: National Write a Will Month. This month allows individuals the opportunity to shape their future and ensure their wishes are honored even after the’ve moved on. Amidst life’s busyness, however, many miss out on the chance to dive into estate planning and create wills. Interestingly, a study by Caring.com points to procrastination as the main culprit behind this inaction. Surprisingly, over 42 percent of Americans haven’t created a will, largely due to putting it off. This leaves both wills and estate planning in unfamiliar territory for many, whether […]

A Letter from NeedyMeds President, Rich Sagall, MD

  We need your help!   Ever since I started NeedyMeds 25 years ago, all the information on the website has been free. In the beginning, there were two very part-time employees — now we have a staff of thirty. When we started, we had information about only the patient assistance programs — now we have data on 40,000 programs covering nearly 15 different types of assistance. When we started, we were doing well to get 100 visitors daily to the website — now we get 10,000 to 15,000 each weekday.   In the past, we have been able to […]

All About Patient Assistance Programs

NeedyMeds was started in 1997 when a family physician and a medical social worker realized there were dozens of pharmaceutical patient assistance programs available, providing medications to those in need at low- or no-cost, but no centralized resource for the information.  We became that resource, using the relatively new (at the time) Internet as the perfect medium for the constantly changing information. Despite growing significantly since our inception, we still have an expanding database of Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) to help those unable to cover the costs of prescriptions.   Patient assistance programs are typically funded by pharmaceutical companies to […]

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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.