Aug 18, 2009 6:00 pm US/Eastern
3 On Your Side: Free & Low Cost Drugs
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
The high cost of prescription drugs can take a big chunk out of the family budget. But as Your Money Team has shown you in the past, there are ways to save. As we continue to help you to Survive in '09, 3-On Your Side's Jim Donovan tells us about some programs that have been updated to save you even more money.
For 50 years, drug manufacturer Merck & Co. has offered a Patient Assistant Program to help the uninsured obtain prescription drugs for free.
On Tuesday at the Maria de los Santos Health Center on Allegheny Avenue in Philadelphia, Merck representatives promoted the fact that they've loosened up the income requirements in order to be eligible for the program.
According to Patrick Davish of Merck, "That's $43,000 for an individual and about $88,000 for a family of four. So we think that will help people a great deal more and have access to our medications."
Over a dozen Merck-made-drugs are available in the program and raising the income limit has helped.
"We've seen a steady uptick in the number of applications coming in," says Davish.
Meanwhile, we've told you in the past about Wal-Mart's $4 generic prescription program. Well on Tuesday Wal-Mart announced that they've broadened the program so as to offer a 90-day supply of 300 generic drugs for $10, with free mail delivery. There are no membership or enrollment fees and the mail order option is available in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
For more information on both the Merck Patient Assistance Program and Wal-Mart's mail order generic option, visit the links posted below.
Merck:
www.merck.com
Wal-Mart:
www.walmartimages.com
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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