The calls for help come in constantly. On the line are usually working people with insurance who have been diagnosed with a serious illness.
“And when they go to fill their medication they find that their copay, their responsibility is in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, on a monthly basis and there's not a lot of people out there that can afford that,” said Jeff Spafford.
Spafford was running a specialty pharmacy in Orlando, dispensing unique and high-cost medications.
“Taking care of these patients, I saw more and more of them coming to me, patients who had insurance but could not afford their co-pay or their financial responsibility and as such were having to make pretty hard choices about whether or not they paid their rent, or really got access to their specialty medication,” Spafford said.
In 2009, Spafford and business partner Edward Hensley founded The Assistance Fund with the goal of making access to medicine for all a reality. To date, they've helped more than 19,000 people nationwide.
“We really see that as our role, as being their advocates and helping them navigate, helping them get access, so we work very closely with the pharmacies. We work with their physicians. We work with their health care insurance providers to sort of bring everyone together in understanding what that patients situation is,” Spafford said.
When patients call in, the need is determined and whether FDA approved drugs are available. Sometimes just guiding callers through the Affordable Care Act or finding ways to help with monthly insurance premiums is enough. But usually the need is far greater.
“(And so) if you take a disease like multiple sclerosis, the primary drugs that they use to treat that are specialty pharmacy drugs that range anywhere between $30,000 to $100,000 a year,” Spafford said.
The Assistance Fund has raised more than $100 million, mostly from corporations, grants and the drug manufacturers themselves.
There's also a local fundraising event each fall, but Spafford admits there are more diseases he'd like to cover, more services he'd like to provide and more patients he knows need help.
“It's stories that we get from patients every day and how we've been able to help them and how we've been able to make a difference in their lives that really helps, keeps us going,” Spafford said.
The Assistance Fund is looking to someday expand into providing more services from mobility needs to lab tests and better access to specialty doctors.