What happens when your patient goes to fill the prescription you wrote and is faced with a required prior authorization from the insurance provider or the patient discovers it is a non-formulary drug, or there is a quantity limit or step therapy is required?  Do you change the drug to something on the insurance formulary?  If so, the prescription must be rewritten or resubmitted electronically to the pharmacy, consuming additional time of the medical and pharmacy staff.  Do you try to get a prior authorization, another time consuming process that still may not yield an approval for the drug prescribed?   Meanwhile, the patient is standing in a pharmacy waiting.  Do you try step therapy, a process that could mean weeks of medication therapy with an ineffective drug before the insurance company will pay for the drug originally prescribed?  What is the answer?
Using a prescription assistance program is one way to combat these insurance challenges, and allowing the patient to receive discounts on medications subject to one of these rejections. The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) has partnered with the North Carolina Drug Card, a free statewide prescription assistance program to do just that.
The North Carolina Drug Card is a HIPAA compliant program, accepted at virtually all pharmacy chains in the state and free to everyone. There are no restrictions, no applications and no limitations. Patients can download or print a free card at www.northcarolinadrugcard.com or go to the NCMS website and download and print card directly.
In addition to providing savings to the patients using the card, the North Carolina Drug Card has partnered with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and a donation is made to the local CMN Hospitals in the state of North Carolina each time the North Carolina Drug Card is used. For more information or to request cards, please contact Britni Manners at (931) 721-6292 or [email protected]. This program is not insurance.  It is a point of sale discount program.