Health Foundation Data Shows Increasing Local Need

Thursday, February 17, 2011

New data on a local prescription grant program shows striking evidence of the impact the recession has had on the healthcare needs of residents in and around the Triangle.

The Greater Williamsburg Medication Access Program (GWMAC), a Williamsburg Community Health Foundation grant program, offers patients at community clinics free prescription medication when they need it. When the program started in 2005, 552 patients received just over 4,200 prescriptions with a wholesale value of just over $1 million.

In 2010, according to data just released, the numbers swelled to nearly 3,000 people who received about 19,600 prescriptions with a value of close to $11 million. These are record numbers for the program.

Jeanne Zeidler, president of WCHF, said the program has become a key part of the region’s healthcare safety net. “The program was launched in 2005, so it was firmly in place as the economic downturn began taking its toll several years later.

“While economic circumstances are forcing people to make difficult choices, we are pleased deciding whether to get prescription medications is not one of them.”

Spokesman Ross Richardson explains further that the main culprit for the dramatic increase in the programs numbers is job loss. People who have lost their jobs generally can’t afford insurance, and turn to the safety net services to get help. Also, many people who visit local clinics have jobs that don’t offer health benefits, Richardson points out. That’s no longer a standard benefit offered by employers.

The grant program is administered by the Virginia Health Care Foundation. Sarah Jane Stewart, who oversees the program for the VHCF, says, “It sounds dramatic because it is: This program saves lives.

“The healthcare safety net is invisible to most people most of the time. They are extremely thankful, however, to find that through programs like GWMAP, it is there and it is strong should they need it.”

Medication caseworkers at local clinics match patient needs with free prescription medications from brand-name pharmaceutical companies. Participating clinics include Colonial Behavioral Health Services, Gloucester-Mathews Free Clinic, Lackey Free Clinic, Northern Neck Free Clinic, and Olde Towne Medical Center. A roving outreach worker serves St. David’s Free Clinic, and patients of physicians in King and Queen, King William and Essex Counties.

These clinics serve residents in the cities of Poquoson and Williamsburg and the counties of Charles City, Gloucester, James City, King William, King and Queen, Essex, Mathews, Middlesex, Surry, and York.

Since 1996, the WCHF has given more than $44 million to support community health programs in the Triangle area.