One of the most frustrating aspects of living with a chronic or rare condition is the financial stress it places on patients and their families.
Doctor’s visits and prescription drugs are pricey enough for regular wellness and acute conditions; for lifelong, ongoing medical needs, the strain can be utterly overwhelming.
Between bouncing back and forth to different specialists, getting the right diagnosis, and experimenting with different drugs to find what works best (or what works least offensively), the average patient can quickly find themselves underwater with medical bills.
The rarer the disease and the fewer the treatment options, the easier it is to get overwhelmed.
Take for example, Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC). Until recently, there were no drugs specially designed for slowing the progression of this disease, which gradually destroys the liver’s bile ducts and leads to liver scarring. Even with approved treatments, the patient population is so small that medical costs end up being sky high. But without treatment, the liver can become cirrhotic and stop functioning.
Fortunately, PBC patients now have a new resource in their corner.
The Assistance Fund, a charitable assistance foundation that provides financial assistance to patients living with more than 30 different conditions, recently announced the creation of a PBC Financial Assistance Program. The program will help PBC patients with co-pays, health insurance premiums, and other costs associated with using FDA-approved PBC treatments. Patients interested in applying for assistance can determine their eligibility by clicking here.
If you’re a PBC patient who needs help, check it out today. What are you waiting for? Go there right now!
