|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Card gives low-income seniors access to greater savings on critical prescription medicines at community pharmacies
SEATTLE—Bartell Drugs is joining other pharmacists across the U.S. in accepting the Together Rx card, providing eligible seniors and other Medicare-enrollees access to savings on prescription medicines from seven pharmaceutical companies. Together, they will offer savings on more than 150 of their individual prescription drugs.
Enrollment forms are available at all Bartell Drugstores and also on Together Rx Card’s website at www.together-rx.com.
The new card offers several benefits, including better access to a wider range of medications and “one-card” convenience instead of multiple cards for various pharmaceutical company savings programs.
The Bush Administration recently endorsed this savings card as an important step toward a complete program bringing affordable, pharmaceutical healthcare to low-income seniors.
The Together Rx program has support from leading health and medical organizations, including the AARP, the National Council on Aging, the National Medical Association, Alzheimer’s Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Psychiatric Association as well as manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies.
“Pharmacists play a critical role in delivering healthcare to our nation’s seniors, and the Together Rx card is an important solution to a serious problem that low-income seniors in our community face,” said George D. Bartell, president and CEO of the 50-store chain. “Together Rx will allow us to serve new patients—people who otherwise might not be able to buy the prescriptions they need. It will help seniors become more compliant with their treatment plans, by making the important medicines they desperately need much more affordable.”
The Together Rx card offers a number of benefits for seniors:
- ACCESS. Together Rx offers the most inclusive eligibility requirements of any pharmacy savings program, extending its reach to a greater number of seniors to provide savings on more medicines.
- CONVENIENCE. Up to now, each pharmaceutical company had its own savings program, with separate cards and enrollments. The Together Rx card unites seven of those programs into one. Seniors now have one card that provides savings from multiple companies on multiple drugs, to be used at multiple pharmacies.
- RANGE. The Together Rx formulary includes more than 150 drugs addressing more than 20 disease states that are among the most common among the senior population.
- RELATIONSHIPS. Unlike PBM’s and other mail-order programs, this program focuses on retail and outpatient pharmacies, and on maintaining the important relationships that trusted community pharmacists have with their patients.
The founding members of the Together Rx program are Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson (through its Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceutical Inc. companies) and Novartis.
McKesson Corporation, the world’s leading healthcare technology and pharmaceutical supply company, will act as program administrator through its Health Solutions business unit. McKesson, a primary supplier of Medications and Health & Beauty products for the Bartell chain, was chosen for its strong distribution relationships with retail and outpatient pharmacies across the country.
The program has also received broad support from members of the U.S. Congress and from governors. Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, called the card a “tremendous new initiative,” adding, “The Together Rx card will make life-saving medicines more affordable for millions of seniors and is a testimony to the way the private sector effectively and creatively addresses the needs of consumers and patients throughout the country.”
Please visit www.together-rx.com or call 1.800.865.7211 for more information on the program.
|
