Free Financial Assistance for Medical Treatment and Medication Costs for Chronic Illness and Rare Diseases: The PAN Foundation

The PAN Foundation (Patient Access Network Foundation) provides grants of financial assistance to help cover the cost of medical treatments and prescriptions for both chronic and rare diseases that your insurance doesn’t cover or only partially covers. They have a running list of both conditions and medications that are eligible at any given time. Sometimes the grants for a given condition are ‘open’ (i.e. available) and sometimes they are ‘closed’ (i.e. not available). So check, and if something is ‘closed’ or even not listed on the site at all, check back at another time.

As to all that the PAN Foundation covers, they say that “Our 12-month grants offer financial assistance for out-of-pocket medication costs, including co-pays, health insurance premiums, and transportation costs associated with medical care.” They go on to say that “We help underinsured people with life-threatening, chronic, and rare diseases get the medications and treatments they need by assisting with their out-of-pocket costs and advocating for improved access and affordability.”

The general requirements are that you have insurance, and that insurance is not covering the cost of treatment or medication as prescribed by your doctor, that you reside and are receiving treatment within the U.S. (you don’t have to be a U.S. citizen), and that your income is no more than a certain amount. Each grant has its own requirements.

Some have more specific requirements than others, for example for asthma you need to be on Medicare, and earn no more than 400% of the Federal poverty level. The Federal poverty level for 2023 is $13,590 for an individual, meaning that you cannot make more than 4x that, or $54,360. For other conditions, treatments, and medications the requirement may be only that you have insurance (not specifying, for example, Medicare), and the income requirement may be different.

Requirements for PAN Foundation grant to cover the cost of asthma medication
Be getting treatment for Asthma.
Reside and receive treatment in the United States or U.S. territories. (U.S. citizenship is not a requirement.)
Have Medicare health insurance that covers your qualifying medication or product.
Be prescribed a medication or product that is listed on PAN’s list of covered medications.
Have an income that falls at or below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

You can look up your condition and medications at the PAN Foundation disease and medication finder here.

There is also an “‘Extra Help’ program for people on Medicare.

The PAN Foundation also has a smartphone app called ‘FundFinder’ which is “a free app that tracks funding availability across nine major charitable assistance organizations,” about which they say “has amassed more than 70,000 users and sent out more than 1.4 million automated texts and emails about available funding.”

The PAN Foundation
panfoundation.org