Insurance Agent Forum

[Markingriffin]

This may help you, it may not. It may only help you make a few sales. I'm just sharing it with you. It is worth trying. Not every client can get this help. But here is the idea and story.

Most seniors can't afford to buy Life Insurance because they are paying too much for their prescription drugs. If we could find someone to give them the prescription drugs for free or reduce the cost of their medications, they could afford to buy the Life Insurance.

Let me give you an example on how this can result into making more life insurance sales. I ran into a lady 61 years old and on a low income. Her son wanted her to buy some life insurance. She only made about 12,000 a year. She told me that she needed to buy at least $25,000 of life insurance, but could not afford it because it due to her low income and high prescription drugs that the doctor had her on. She was on 4 different prescriptions. She had no health insurance what so ever to help coverage the cost of the prescriptions. Her son had to help her buy her prescriptions. They begin to tell me how they were spending over $350 a month on pills. They just didn’t know how to come up with the money to pay for the much needed Life Insurance. I told her I knew of a place that help people get free Prescription drugs, if they were on a low income and had no insurance. We went to their website and she answers some question and we quickly found out that she qualified for free Prescription drugs. After now saving them over $350.00 a month, they were happy to spend some of the saved money buying life insurance. I was able to sell the lady and her son some life insurance and they still had some money left over from the $350.00 monthly saving.

Here is the website and phone number to the place we used.

www.pparx.org or 1-888-4ppanow or 1-888-477-2669.

What is the Partnership for Prescription Assistance?

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance brings together America’s pharmaceutical companies, doctors, other health care providers, patient advocacy organizations and community groups to help qualifying patients who lack prescription coverage get the medicines they need through the public or private program that’s right for them. Many will get them free or nearly free. Its mission is to increase awareness of patient assistance programs and boost enrollment of those who are eligible. Through this site, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance offers a single point of access to more than 475 public and private patient assistance programs, including more than 180 programs offered by pharmaceutical companies. To access the Partnership for Prescription Assistance by phone, you can call toll-free, 1-888-4PPA-NOW (1-888-477-2669).

Four Million Americans Find Help Through Partnership for Prescription Assistance.

In order to find out what patient assistance programs you may qualify for, all you have to do is answer a few short eligibility questions. This site will help supply you with the information you need to get involved in a program and even allow you to download applications online. You can then follow the instructions on the application to apply.

[scottydb]

In the past, I have always offered to help them find a discount card that would give them a break on prescriptions.

I have never heard of this program, I appreciate your insight!!!!!!!!!

I know a few clients that this will help!!!!!

[Markingriffin]

Also this is not a membership club. They don't pay a monthly fee to do this.

They do have rules and not everyone can do it. Visit the website for more details.

[GreenSky]

I've been recommending www.needymeds.com for years which is similar to the site Mark posted. I've also been happy with a foreign pharmacy www.planetdrugsdirect.com.

Rick

[Markingriffin]

It does not matter which company you help them with. If you save them money, then can then have money to fix their other problems. THey need both, the pills and the insurance. We are just helping them pay for the insurance.

[rsagall]

At the suggestion of one of your colleagues, NeedyMeds now offers a listing of all the drugs available on PAPs and the program's contact phone number. We send a new list 1-2 times per month.

The list is unnecessary if you have access to our website.

Please email me if you want to learn more about this service or have any questions about NeedyMeds and the information we offer.

Rich

Rich Sagall, MD
President
NeedyMeds.com, Inc.
P.O. Box 219
Gloucester, MA 01931
rich.sagall@needymeds.com

[somarco]

Patient Charity

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

To prevent you from going from hero to goat, what do you do/say when/if the medication is no longer offered for free/at a severely reduced price?

It's great to save them $350/month now. What happens, though, 2 years down the road when they are still on the medication, and it is no longer offered free/at reduced cost?

At that point in time, the medication is not $350, it's $500.

[Markingriffin]

Originally Posted by Bob_The_Insurance_Guy

To prevent you from going from hero to goat, what do you do/say when/if the medication is no longer offered for free/at a severely reduced price?

It's great to save them $350/month now. What happens, though, 2 years down the road when they are still on the medication, and it is no longer offered free/at reduced cost?

At that point in time, the medication is not $350, it's $500.

I can only do my best to help them. I can't control everything, but I will do what I can to help them. I've been using the programs for years and the clients that got on the program have never called me back with this problem. But there are a million programs out there. I might even look at getting the meds from Canada or something. There are always a million what if. What if she goes on 5 new drugs, and they are not covered? What if she no longer has any income?

I don't make any promises to my clients about these programs. They know that I'm trying to help them and after they start saving money, and have extra money, it helps them buy insurance.

You can always find something wrong with an idea, but this works, and if you wish to use it, then do. If you don't like it, then don't use it.

I guess I will worry about it when a client ever calls me and tells me that program has stopped helping them and then I will help find another answer for them. But as of today, this has never happend. Not to say that there is not a lot of RED TAPE sometimes on these programs. The program that I use is free to them. No memberships or hidden fees. But there are a ton of papers to fill out. It is worth it to them.

The lady in my example, is saving $350.00 a month. That does not mean she bought a $350.00 policy. The $350.00 was already in her budget. She just could not afford insurance on top of that. At worst case, if I could not help her in the future, I would call her son back and see if he can help her pay for either or both of them.

No idea is every fool proof. Bottom line is it worked for my client and me. Because of it, I made the sale and both my client and I are happy.

I might have to one day go from hero to goat like you said. But this Goat, try to help and the client is happy with me.

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

I was asking, because when I suggested it to someone, their adult son asked me the question, and my answer was similar to yours. Just wanted a second opinion.

BTW, her adult son is an attorney.

[GreenSky]

Originally Posted by Bob_The_Insurance_Guy

To prevent you from going from hero to goat, what do you do/say when/if the medication is no longer offered for free/at a severely reduced price?

It's great to save them $350/month now. What happens, though, 2 years down the road when they are still on the medication, and it is no longer offered free/at reduced cost?

At that point in time, the medication is not $350, it's $500.

Virtually every medication is available through patient assistant programs. As I said, you can search for them on a variety of sites. The one I use is www.needymeds.com.

After my mother had a stroke, we were able to get all her medications for free by using this program. While she is (fortunately) off virtually of the meds, until she no longer needed them, they were available.

About 2 years ago, a 23 yr. old woman asked me for health insurance. She did not have much of an income and was taking serveral medications for asthma. I wrote her a policy without Rx and she was able to get all her medication from the patient assistant program. The insurance premium was about $75 per month so I didn't exactly get rich on the policy. However, my client not only was protected from medical expenses, but she reduced her medication cost to zero.

Perhaps Dr. Sagall would post more information on how these programs work. They have been invaluable to many of my clients. And without my help, most of them would have gone without the medications, or would go broke (or even more broker) by paying for them.

Rick

[xrac]

Originally Posted by Bob_The_Insurance_Guy

I was asking, because when I suggested it to someone, their adult son asked me the question, and my answer was similar to yours. Just wanted a second opinion. BTW, her adult son is an attorney.

What if the sky falls? What if medicare ends? What if she wins the lottery? We can only provide answers and assistance based upon today's circumstances. Nothing in life is guaranteed. When circumstances change then we see what fits the situation. That question sounds like a lawyer doesn't it!

[TRK3031962]

Just as another thing to think about...
I called PPArx a while back and they explained to me that they could even help people already on Part D when they reach the coverage gap. They explained to me that part of their application asks if they currently have prescription drug coverage. They told me that for someone who reaches the gap, the answer to this is NO, they effectively do not have coverage and can answer NO truthfully. I've helped a few people by sending them to PPArx for this very reason.

[jaugusta]

I used this already this morning and got a referal and already done a life app off of it. So..... THANKS.