About us

We envision a future where equitable, accessible healthcare is a reality for all.

As a leading charitable foundation and healthcare advocacy organization, the Patient Access Network Foundation is dedicated to accelerating access to treatment for those who need it most and empowering patients on their healthcare journeys. We provide critical financial assistance for treatment costs, advocate for policy solutions that expand access to care, and deliver education on complex topics—all driven by our belief that everyone deserves access to affordable, equitable healthcare.

Since 2004, our financial assistance programs have helped more than 1.3 million people to start or stay on life-changing treatment. In addition, we’ve achieved major policy victories that increase access to care, mobilized patient advocates to call for change, and educated people nationwide on critical healthcare-related topics. We’re committed to working towards a future where equitable health outcomes are a reality for all.

Our mission

As an independent, national 501(c)(3) organization, the PAN Foundation’s mission is to accelerate access to affordable, equitable healthcare through financial assistance, advocacy, and education.

Through our charitable assistance programs, advocacy efforts, and education initiatives, we remove barriers to treatment, champion policies that expand access to care, and help improve health outcomes for thousands of people each year—across a broad range of health conditions.

Our impact on patients

Nearly half of adults say that it’s difficult to afford their healthcare costs and half say they would be unable to pay a $500 unexpected medical bill without borrowing money¹. For people living on a fixed income, like Mary-Ellen, rising out-of-pocket medication costs mean making difficult financial decisions.

Our assistance funds mean that Mary-Ellen and the hundreds of thousands of people we serve every year don’t have to choose. Instead, they can focus on receiving the treatment they need and improving their quality of life.

¹ Kaiser Family Foundation, 2022: Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs

How we work toward affordable, equitable healthcare

Health equity is about ensuring that all people—regardless of where they live, their income, or their background—have the same opportunity to get the care they need.

Our work focuses on solutions that improve access and transform health for all people living with serious and chronic illnesses so that everyone can reach their best health.

Access to affordable healthcare is not available to everyone. In fact, our State of Patient Access research initiative demonstrates that nearly everyone in the United States is struggling with access barriers, with some significant differences between groups researched.

Ensuring everyone has the same opportunity to get the care they need means we need to consider how people’s needs may differ. This may include looking at the following factors:

• Access to technology and the internet
• Age
• Disability status
• Educational background
• Gender/sex
• Geography – where you live (urban, rural, suburban)
• Income
• Insurance status
• Language
• Military/Veteran status
• Race/ethnicity
• Religion or faith
• Sexual orientation
• Type of illness

Together, we can work towards transforming health for everyone.

Our work principles

We’re committed to creating a future where everyone has access to affordable, equitable healthcare. We work toward this through several key principles:

Providing financial assistance to patients who need it most

• Our financial assistance programs are income-based and help eligible, insured people with their out-of-pocket healthcare costs, who have nowhere else to turn to afford their treatments.
• Through broad outreach and partnerships at the national, regional, and local levels, we work to ensure that everyone in the U.S.—from the people living in rural communities to big cities—can learn about our resources, check their eligibility, and apply for financial assistance.

Advocating for policies that promote access to healthcare

• We advocate for long-term, patient-centered policy solutions that improve healthcare access and affordability for everyone.
• Through our robust advocacy platform, grassroots advocacy initiatives, and patient advocacy partnerships, we are building a community dedicated to driving positive change for all people living with life-threatening, chronic, and rare diseases.

Empowering people to navigate their healthcare journeys with clear, plain-language educational resources

• Healthcare is complicated. We’re focused on making it easy as possible for people to make decisions that help them access affordable care through education that breaks down complex topics.

Conducting research through our Center for Patient Research to listen and learn from patients and understand their access challenges.

• We use these findings to educate people and policymakers on actions that can increase access to affordable, equitable care.

Partnering with organizations that are committed to improving health access and outcomes for everyone

• Collaboration is key to our work. To reach everyone in need, we need to work alongside national organizations, healthcare providers, patient advocacy organizations, community-based organizations, and beyond.

Ensuring our resources can be accessed by everyone

• We are continuously working to expand our language assistance services, accessibility practices, and multilingual resources so that everyone can access and benefit from our critical resources.
• We provide language assistance services at our contact center in over 20 languages and are consistently working to expand our multilingual resources.

Our values

Dignity. Excellence. Integrity. Intention.

At the PAN Foundation, we recognize that who we are and how we operate is fundamental to our ability to provide compliant, life-saving support to the patients we serve. Our goal is to ensure our organizational values are at the core of everything we do.

Leading the way

Tackling a challenge as great as healthcare access, affordability, and equity for all requires a best-in-class team. We’re grateful to have some of the most talented leaders guiding our organization, staff who are committed to the mission, and patients who volunteer their time to provide important insights to help us shape our work.

Board of Directors

The PAN Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors, comprised of experts and seasoned leaders from the healthcare, financial, legal, and policy communities. The Board is responsible for establishing long-term strategy, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations, and monitoring organizational effectiveness.

Leadership

The PAN Foundation is led by a devoted, highly qualified, diverse executive leadership team. With expertise in clinical affairs, compliance, operations, health equity, advocacy, marketing and communications, patient support services, technology, data analytics, and more, the PAN Foundation leadership and staff are passionate and ready to meet the needs of our patients.

Patient and Family Advisory Council

As a patient-centered organization, PAN Foundation is dedicated to hearing directly from our patients and their families and using those insights to inform what we do. That’s why we established our Patient and Family Advisory Council to serve as key advisors to and ambassadors of our work.