November 18, 2013—Eight leading drug manufacturers are pulling the plug on a discount card program used by more than 2 million people who are ineligible for Medicare and have no prescription drug coverage.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
The Together Rx Access Card program will cease accepting applications after Dec. 31 and the cards will become void on Feb. 28, 2014, according to a notice on the Together Rx Access website. “We have determined that individuals and families who need help obtaining their prescription medicines may be better served by the health coverage options available through the Health Insurance Marketplace, expanded Medicaid programs in select states, or by individual company prescription assistance programs,” the notice reads. “As a result, the Together Rx Access Program will close at the end of the year.”
Together Rx Access was founded in January 2005 “to help hardworking Americans and their families who have no prescription drug coverage and are not eligible for Medicare gain access to immediate and meaningful savings on prescription products right at their neighborhood pharmacies,” according to the program website. Originally founded by 10 companies, the eight current sponsors are: AbbVie, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, LifeScan, Pfizer, Stiefel, ViiV, and Vistakon.
The program covers around 250 brand-name drugs and “a wide range of generic products,” the website says. “Most cardholders save 25 to 40 percent on brand-name prescription medicines and products.”
Together Rx Access is directing cardholders to the drug industry’s Partnership for Prescription Assistance clearinghouse, the nonprofit NeedyMeds online database of patient assistance programs, and the nonprofit RxOutreach mail-order pharmacy.
TogetherRx Access stopped allowing cardholders to get their prescriptions filled at 340B pharmacies in 2007, under the rationale that low-income patients already should be getting free or reduced-cost medicine from 340B providers. At the time, some 340B hospitals reported being confused about the policy switch because they said Together Rx Access had previously recruited them to participate.
Two of the program’s sponsors—AbbVie and Janssen—are members of the Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B (AIR340B), the industry-led group seeking to scale back the 340B program.[/ms-protect-content]