Share your story

By sharing your stories with us, you help to ensure policymakers understand how the policies they enact directly impact patients across the country.

As the PAN Foundation works to advocate for improved healthcare access and affordability for all, we want to hear directly from patients and healthcare professionals like you about your personal experience with key healthcare policies.

Telehealth access

How has using telehealth benefited you?

our position: make telehealth access permanent

Telehealth continues to be a vital lifeline to care for millions of people in the United States—especially for older adults, underserved communities, and those in rural areas. PAN is advocating to make telehealth flexibilities permanent for Medicare patients and others who rely on it for their healthcare.

What has been your experience using telehealth? How has access to telehealth services benefited you or your patients?

Alternative funding programs

Has your insurance plan “carved out” your medication, calling it non-essential, directing you to an alternative funding program?

our position: ban programs that limit access to medications

Specialty drugs are prescription medications that treat chronic illnesses, complex conditions, cancer, and rare diseases. To avoid covering expensive specialty medications, some commercial health insurance plans define these drugs as non-essential health benefits and deny coverage for them. The insurance plan will then ask patients to enroll with a third-party company’s alternative funding program (AFP), sometimes labeled a drug carve-out plan. While the AFP company might help patients find financial assistance or manufacturers’ coupons for their medications, these don’t count toward your out-of-pocket maximum. That’s just one way AFPs hurt patients and burden the healthcare system. AFPs are designed to help employers save money and pass on the expense to patients, selling the plan to employers for their employer-sponsored benefits.

Learn how AFPs increase your out-of-pocket expenses and harm patients.

Step therapy, aka “fail first”

Have you been asked to “try and fail” a medication preferred by your health insurance plan before they would cover the drug you were prescribed?

our position: curb these restrictive practices

Step therapy—or “fail first” policies—are health insurance policies that require patients to “try and fail” an insurer-preferred medication before covering the medication that was originally prescribed. These policies can delay access to recommended prescriptions. For some patients, this can also lead to severe side effects and irreversible disease progression.

Is this something you or your patients have had to deal with? Has it delayed your access to care?

Prior authorization

Have you needed pre-approval from health insurance before you could fill a prescribed medication?

our position: curb these restrictive practices

Prior authorization is when patients or their healthcare professional need pre-approval from their insurance provider before they can get coverage for a prescribed medication. Too often, this practice disrupts care delivery and can lead to negative health outcomes for patients. PAN’s research revealed that half of insured adults have faced prior authorization barriers, and a fifth of patients say their treatment was delayed by an average of two weeks. Have you or your patients faced delayed access to care because of prior authorization practices?

Copay accumulators

Have you used copay assistance or coupon programs, only to find out your insurance plan doesn’t count it toward your deductible?

Our position: ban programs that limit access to medications

Copay accumulator policies used by commercial health insurers prevent patients from using financial assistance to count toward their deductibles, resulting in a much larger overall out-of-pocket financial burden. You might have gotten financial assistance (such as manufacturers’ coupons or support from an assistance organization) for your medication costs, only to be told your insurance won’t let it count towards your deductible. Have you or your patients faced increased out-of-pocket costs or delayed access to your care because of copay accumulator programs?

Learn more about copay accumulators and copay maximizers.