Celebrating 20 Years of Help, Healing and Hope

Each time I write to you, I’m filled with excitement about sharing our achievements over the past quarter. This issue is particularly near and dear to me as we celebrate 20 years of providing Help, Healing and Hope to America’s underinsured.

In 2003, HealthWell was established with the vision to ensure that NO patient goes without health care because they cannot afford it. That was 20 years ago. Since then, we have served as a financial lifeline to over 900,000* patients (*as of 10/31/23) who would have forgone critical, often lifesaving, medical treatments simply because their health insurance was not enough. It’s truly humbling to know that our impact is the result of the selfless generosity of our individual and corporate donors who share our passion to assist underinsured Americans who have nowhere else to turn.

To commemorate our 20^th anniversary, the team has created a flipbook of stories we’ve received from 20 of our grateful grant recipients whose lives were touched by your support. Without you, we would never have been able to provide a financial lifeline to the hundreds of thousands of patients who reached out to us for assistance.

On behalf of our Board, our dedicated corporate and contact center teams, and the patients, families, and caregivers we assist, THANK YOU for making it possible to provide Help, Healing and HOPE to so many Americans in need. I hope you’ll take a moment to read these heartfelt stories to learn about the impact a HealthWell grant has on those in need of life-changing medical treatments.

Since my last update, the teams have been busy enhancing our online tools, launching new or re-opening funds in a variety of disease areas, and attending industry and disease-specific conferences. Recently, we were honored to announce our participation in the White House Cancer Moonshot initiative and were recognized for our efforts in assisting oncology patients in the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Fact Sheet, published earlier this fall. We were also proud to publish our 2022 Annual Report highlighting our impact on America’s underinsured. I have so much more to share, so I hope you will continue to read to learn more about these and other exciting achievements.

Foundation and Service Updates

An Official Cancer Moonshot Resource: Committed to Making a Difference in the Lives of Oncology Patients

HealthWell is honored to be included in the White House Cancer Moonshot initiative and to further our commitment to financially support oncology patients who cannot afford their critical, often lifesaving, medications. We are proud to be recognized for our efforts in the White House Cancer Moonshot Fact Sheet, published Wednesday, September 13, 2023.

The Cancer Moonshot initiative is mobilizing efforts nationally to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by 2047 and to improve the experience of people who are touched by cancer. The goal is to “end cancer as we know it.” As part of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, in 2024 HealthWell Foundation will:

• Commit to providing more than $300 million to underinsured oncology patients to offset out-of-pocket medication costs. The financial support will enable patients to adhere to prescribed treatment regimens and improve their survival.
• Seek to diversify clinical trials enrollment by providing out-of-pocket financial reimbursement to qualified oncology patients to offset their costs of participation in oncology clinical trials.
• Support oncology caregivers through a new fund to help individuals with certain out-of-pocket financial needs, seeding $500,000 for the program.

Since 2004, as part of the $3.3 billion+ in total patient grants awarded to date, we have awarded over $1.66 billion in medication copayment and insurance premium assistance across 39 oncology funds through more than 440,500 grants to over 310,600 underinsured patients. In addition, we have assisted more than 450 oncology patients seeking behavioral health services with over $221,000 in awards through 600 grants through our Cancer-Related Behavioral Health Fund to help with out-of-pocket treatment-related costs for prescription drugs, counseling services, psychotherapy, and transportation.

We’ll share updates on our Cancer Moonshot initiatives in future letters, so stay tuned!

We are always eager to launch new funds to assist patients in their health care journey. Since my last update, we were honored to open a new fund to provide up to $3,500 in medication copayment or insurance premium assistance to patients living with blepharitis, a chronic condition resulting in painful swelling of the eye lids, dry eye, blurred vision, and in severe cases, corneal damage.

We were also excited to open a new fund to provide financial assistance to individuals living with type 2 diabetes. Through the fund, we were able to offer up to $1,000 to assist with medication copayments for eligible patients. To learn more about our funds and our robust portfolio of diseases covered, visit our Disease Funds page.

HealthWell has always taken great pride in assisting patients in any way we can. We work diligently to connect with and maintain relationships with like-minded organizations to cross refer patients and share resources – strengthening our commitment to total-patient care. Since my last letter, we are thrilled to welcome multiple organizations to our growing list of alliance partners. Special thanks to the African American Diabetes Association, American Diabetes Association, Association of Physician Assistants in Oncology (APAO), and the National Clinician Consultation Center for helping us spread the word about our funds to their respective communities. To learn more about these and the other amazing organizations who share our mission to assist patients in need, visit Our Alliance Partners page.

Online Application, Tools and Resources

At HealthWell, we are committed to ensuring that anyone who reaches out to us receives unprecedented customer service. From initial outreach to us, through the entire grants process, we strive to make working with us as easy as possible. We recently implemented enhancements to our online application and web-based tools to further streamline the grants process. Here are a few of the highlights.

Online Website Application: Now patients and caregivers will receive instant notifications of grant approval upon successful completion of the online application – similar to our phone and portal applicants. The new online application process is quicker and easier, making it more efficient from start to finish.

Real-Time Fund Alerts: Real-time Fund Alerts can now be received through voice call or voicemail, in addition to email and text message notifications. This enhancement improves the user experience and offers more options to patients who may not have access to email or SMS text message notifications.

Two-Factor Authentication: Our patient portal now requires a two-factor authentication as an added layer of security for accessing our portals. Portal users will be required to enter a 6-digit authentication code sent to the email address or phone number provided when the account was created. This new requirement protects patient information and prevents unauthorized access to your portal account.

Document Upload: The new document upload feature allows provider and pharmacy portal users to see a visual of the documents uploaded to the portal for their patients.

Portal Alerts: We extended the portal pop-up alerts feature to our patient portals. Patients can now stay up to date through a pop-up alert with important news about the portal and the HealthWell Foundation.

In addition, we recently launched a new Family Caregivers Resource page and produced a video to educate patients, providers, pharmacies and caregivers on copayment assistance programs (CPAPs). I hope you’ll take a few moments to check out these new and enhanced resources.

As the need for our services continues to grow, we enhanced our corporate and contact center teams through the addition of new team members. Visit the Who We Are section of our website to meet the team and learn about their contributions to HealthWell’s mission.

Conferences and Presentations

To kick-off the fall conference season, we were honored to be the presenting sponsor for the 2023 Healthcare Advocate Summit, which was held in New Orleans. During the three-day summit, HealthWell was joined by other similarly mission-focused organizations to host a full day seminar, devoted specifically to interested and existing corporate manufacturer donors in the charitable patient assistance program (CPAP) space.

We continued to travel across the US spreading the word about our programs and resources and were excited to participate in a variety of conferences, including:

• The 40th Annual SROA – Society of Radiation Oncology Administrators, October 1-4, 2023, San Diego, CA
• American Nurses Association – ANCC Pathway to Excellence, October 12-14, 2023, Chicago, IL
• NORD Rare Diseases & Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit, October 15-17, 2023, Washington, D.C.
• NCODA 2023 Fall Summit, October 25-27, 2023, Orlando, FL
• Hope Charities Conference 2023, November 2-4, 2023, Destin, FL
• North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC), November 2-4, 2023, Phoenix, AZ
• The Liver Meeting – 74th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), November 10-14, 2023, Boston, MA
• Annual Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN), November 15-19, 2023, San Antonio, TX

The team is gearing up for our last meeting of 2023 and will be heading to the 65th American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference, December 9-12, 2023, in San Diego, CA. If you are planning to attend the conference, please stop by booth #32 to meet the team and learn how we can work together to assist oncology patients in need.

We’ll be posting our 2024 conference schedule early in the new year, so visit conference webpage for the most up-to-date information on where to find us!

Giving Thanks for GivingTuesday

As 2023 comes to a close, the team and I wanted to thank you for your continued support of our life-changing work. On November 28, 2023, we launched our GivingTuesday campaign, which highlights 20 years of providing Help, Healing and Hope to underinsured patients. We were touched by the generosity of our individual donors who contributed more than $25,000 to the campaign. Your selfless generosity will help us assist more underinsured patients who would have otherwise forgone critical, potentially lifesaving, medical treatments simply because their insurance wasn’t enough. On behalf of the entire HealthWell team, thank you for helping us help so many in need.

Did you know that 100 percent of your tax-deductible donation is put to work immediately to assist patients in accessing critical treatments that are unattainable due to cost?

Here are a few ways you can support our mission:

1. Make a tax-deductible contribution.  
2. Donate in the name of a friend or loved one. 
3. Include the HealthWell Foundation in your estate plans. 

Can’t make a financial contribution? Helping us spread the word is also a critical, and highly valued, contribution to the HealthWell Foundation. You can help by spreading the word about the life-changing work we do. Connect with us through our social communities! Here’s how you can help us make a difference in the life of a patient in need today. 

1. Create a Facebook fundraiser to commemorate a birthday, anniversary or other special occasion. 

2. Spread the word about the important work we do by sharing your HealthWell story.

 

Wishing you and yours good health and a happy, healthy and safe holiday season.

The HealthWell Team