Better Together: A Collaborative Model to Address Health Equity

By: Alan Richardson, Executive Vice President of Strategic Patient Solutions, Patient Advocate Foundation

Since our inception 25 years ago, Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) has been the voice for the voiceless, navigating the complex healthcare and insurance coverage systems to enable patients to gain access to life changing treatments. We have helped more than 1.7 million people access, and as importantly, afford the care needed to sustain life and, in many cases, improve quality of life. Our firsthand experience helping patients and their families remove the barriers keeping them from appropriate care or causing financial and practical hardships in their homes has been humbling and insightful. As an organization, we have witnessed firsthand the disproportionate long-term consequences of unaddressed social determinants of health and the social needs gaps caused by them. It is through this realization that PAF established longstanding commitment to develop programs based in demonstrated patient need and intentionally bring our programs and services to these communities in an effort to refortify the financial and social needs foundation on which many families found was crumbling beneath them. Patient Advocate Foundation’s focus on health equity is intentionally designed to address the intersectionality of health and the social, financial, and logistical challenges that impact one’s ability to access healthcare and adhere to treatment recommendations. In some communities across the country, left unaddressed, the impact of this intersectionality manifests in late-stage diagnosis, decreased quality of life and/or premature mortality.

PAF has had a long-standing goal of reaching all communities, not just those who are fortunate enough to have an education, employment, insurance, access to a healthcare system or supported by a system of family and friends who advocate for them. We have sought and continue to establish pipelines from limited resourced communities to the platform of free services and resources available through PAF, developing many programs over the years that have enabled us to bring services, education, and support to underserved communities, often partnering with community and national organizations to amplify impact.  

We want to further expand our reach into the communities that continue to experience healthcare inequities. Our goal is to expand the degree to which PAF programs and services effectively reach and serve diverse patients in a way that facilitates their opportunity to attain the highest level of health, produces data and patient stories that enable advocacy and policy activities to address social needs gaps. We realize that our work to solve insurance issues, access issues, and affordability of patient treatments across all disease areas represents only some of the needs patients and their families have. 

One of the programs currently providing services is our HIV, AIDS and Prevention CareLine which provides individualized, sustained assistance to patients diagnosed with HIV, AIDS or are currently being treated with a medication to prevent HIV infection. The CareLine Case Managers provide help to patients across the country to resolve health care access and insurance issues at no charge to the patient. The HIV, AIDS and Prevention CareLine can be accessed by phone at 844-737-6674 M-F from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST or at hivoraids.careline.org

Through the PAF Co-Pay Relief (CPR) program, insured patients can apply for direct financial assistance to cover treatment related expenses connected to their HIV/AIDS treatment and may include insurance co-payments, co-insurance and deductibles, office visits and administration charges related to treatment and medical insurance premiums. CPR is available for any insurance type including Medicare and Medicaid. Patients are approved for a 12-month period and can reapply in future years in co-pay assistance is still necessary. CPR can be accessed by phone at 866-512-3861 and CPR fund details and application documents can be found at copays.org/diseases. 

Patient Partner for Equity

Despite reaching hundreds of thousands of people who are part of an underserved community, providing critical navigation and financial support to them that facilitated access to care and resolved daunting practical needs, we also know that there is still much work to do. Through our experience breaking down barriers to care and our understanding of the impact social determinants of health have on healthcare access and health outcomes; it is has become clear to us that the path to equity and access is through interconnectedness. Working together to connect these high-need patients who are often not connected to health and social services, with the resources they need to address medical and social needs is critical.  

The Patient Partners for Equity collaborative creates a one-to-one relationship between PAF and other nonprofit organizations for the purposes of connecting patients, specifically those from communities that are underserved and routinely experience health inequities, to PAF’s direct service programs and educational opportunities. This includes our case management navigation services, patient educational materials, our financial aid funds, and our Co-Pay Relief program. This bidirectional relationship allows organizations, and ours, the opportunity to close the gap of health inequities for some patients by connecting them to PAF case management, our financial assistance programs, and educational services, further enhancing the resources that your organization provides. Our intent is to provide organizations with the education and tools necessary to connect patients, families and caregivers to our patient support programs when appropriate, leveraging our services to amplify what you are able to do for those seeking your support. We believe that the path to achieving health equity is reliant upon the collective strengths that this type of partnership will afford. We need your help, and so do patients, their families, and caregivers. We have designed this collaborative with this as the motivating force.

Ready to be a Patient Partner for Equity?

Participation is simple. We ask for your commitment to participate through the completion of the Patient Partner for Equity profile form, allow us an opportunity to provide training to your team(s) about our patient support programs and agree to be included as a Patient Partners in Equity member on PAF’s websites. We have also created other touchpoints and opportunities to engage as you deem appropriate or possible for you and your organization.  

As a member of PAF’s Patient Partners for Equity program, your organization will receive the following benefits:

• Recognition of your organization as a Patient Partner in Equity on PAF’s websites including your logo, an organizational profile, and reciprocal links between our website and yours.
• Personalized education about PAF’s patient support and educational services delivered to your team(s) virtually in a live and recorded format.
• Regular partnership e-communications including the PAF Spotlight, NPAF Policy Dispatch Newsletter and other patient focused patient resources, public policy updates and events.
• Complimentary virtual membership for your organization to National Patient Advocate Foundation’s (NPAF) Policy Consortium. 
• Spotlight of your organization on PAF’s websites once per year
• Access to PAF’s Patient Partner Portal (Available 2022), a dedicated portal for nonprofit organizations to access PAF’s patient programs and educational resources in a centralized location.  This includes access to the PAF Case Management secure referral form, Financial Aid Fund application portals.  In addition, the portal will enable your organization to apply to our Co-Pay Relief Program (CPR) for financial assistance on behalf of patients who meet eligibility requirements, track activity of patient grants, assist with reapplications or submission of materials as needed and gather insights on how these grants impacted the lives of patients seeking your support.

As a member of PAF’s Patient Partners for Equity program, we request that you provide the following:

• A link to PAF’s websites, where appropriate (partner page, patient resource page or other content area)
• Allow PAF to provide training about PAF’s patient support programs annually to your staff working with patients, families, and caregivers 
• Participation in an annual survey or meeting to gain feedback on the program
• Provide a single point of contact for general partnership touchpoints

We appreciate your consideration of our invitation to participate in the Patient Partners in Equity program.  If you would like to be part of the Patient Partners for Equity collaborative, or if you would like to learn more, please contact Alan Richardson, EVP of Strategic Patient Solutions at alan.richardson@patientadvocate.org or 757-952-1372.

Disclaimer: Guest blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the ADAP Advocacy Association, but rather they provide a neutral platform whereby the author serves to promote open, honest discussion about public health-related issues and updates.