| << Front page | News | October 5, 2007 |
Allen Aids County’s Poor
Thanks to a coalition between Allen Memorial Hospital and the national non-profit Saving Our Seniors, low cost prescription medication
will be available to Lorain County’s poor. Patients unable to afford the current rising cost of prescription medication will be able to purchase up to 90 days worth of medication for the small fee of $13. Those unable to afford the fee will not be refused.
Susan Daughetry of Saving Our Seniors claims to receive a cubic foot of medication every other day. “It’s more then we can use for our clients in Erie County,” she said.
As a result, her organization and others have agreed to share the costs with Lorain County in order to begin a pilot program here.
The first of its kind in Ohio, the program promises to provide much needed assistance to one of poorest counties in the state. The medicine includes treatment for heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, which are some of the more common diseases faced in the area.
Although drug redistribution has been around for years, this will be the first time in Ohio that a hospital will function as the primary redistribution site.
A state law passed in 2002 that permitted nursing homes and wholesalers to redistribute unused medication to the poor, initially put the idea of prescription drug redistribution forward. Ohio’s Prescription Drug Repository Program or “Karon’s Law,” which was named after a woman whose husband wanted to donate her medication after her death, was the first of its kind in the nation. However, it was not until 2004 that counties in Ohio took advantage of the law. By then other states had adopted similar laws and put them into practice.
Tanas Wilcox of the Lorain County General Health District reported a great deal of excitement in the program from doctors and staff at the hospital here in Oberlin. However, she wants to “start small and expand it in other parts of the county.”
Allen Memorial and Saving Our Seniors will be in charge of determining whether patients meet the financial requirements to warrant the discounted medication.
Susan Daughetry of Saving Our Seniors claims to receive a cubic foot of medication every other day. “It’s more then we can use for our clients in Erie County,” she said.
As a result, her organization and others have agreed to share the costs with Lorain County in order to begin a pilot program here.
The first of its kind in Ohio, the program promises to provide much needed assistance to one of poorest counties in the state. The medicine includes treatment for heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, which are some of the more common diseases faced in the area.
Although drug redistribution has been around for years, this will be the first time in Ohio that a hospital will function as the primary redistribution site.
A state law passed in 2002 that permitted nursing homes and wholesalers to redistribute unused medication to the poor, initially put the idea of prescription drug redistribution forward. Ohio’s Prescription Drug Repository Program or “Karon’s Law,” which was named after a woman whose husband wanted to donate her medication after her death, was the first of its kind in the nation. However, it was not until 2004 that counties in Ohio took advantage of the law. By then other states had adopted similar laws and put them into practice.
Tanas Wilcox of the Lorain County General Health District reported a great deal of excitement in the program from doctors and staff at the hospital here in Oberlin. However, she wants to “start small and expand it in other parts of the county.”
Allen Memorial and Saving Our Seniors will be in charge of determining whether patients meet the financial requirements to warrant the discounted medication.
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