Health Care Charities Are Under Threat SAVE LIVES & TAXPAYER DOLLARS Nearly 30 years ago, PSI, the nation’s first patient assistance charity, was established to help Americans battling chronic and rare diseases access life-saving health care. Since then, an entire sector of similar charities emerged to provide a temporary safety net to over half a million Americans who, through no fault of their own, are suffering from life-threatening – and expensive – conditions. Patient assistance charities don’t just save lives – they save limited government funds. Charities like PSI have become an essential cornerstone of America’s health care system, providing an estimated $1 billion in financial assistance to Americans in-need. Absent these charitable donations, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be forced to turn to resource-strapped government programs – if they even qualify – for the care they need. Yet, health care charities are under threat. Recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) restricts the ability of charities to communicate with pharmaceutical donors about new therapies and patient needs. This guidance has become so constraining that it is impairing charities’ ability to operate, making it difficult to develop new programs and obtain funding for existing programs that many patients rely on. Simply put, if charities can’t step in to help chronic and rare disease patients cover the prohibitive costs of their health care, either hardworking taxpayers will have to, or people will die. It’s time to end misguided federal policies that contradict everything we stand for as Americans. https://www.patientservicesinc.org/advocacy/health-care-charities-save-lives-and-taxpayer-dollars