Evolving Patient Assistance: A Holistic Approach to Access and Engagement
Jennifer Noonan, MSN, RN, vice president, clinical strategy and patient engagement, Accessia Health
In this interview, Jennifer Noonan, MSN, RN, discusses patient-directed, holistic grant structures to improve access and autonomy for individuals with diverse health care needs.
Please introduce yourself by stating your name, title, and any relevant experience you’d like to share.
Jennifer Noonan, MSN, RN: I am Jennifer Noonan and I’m the vice president of clinical strategy and patient engagement at Accessia Health.
Can you provide an overview of your session at NICA 2025?
Noonan: We're talking about the gradual change in the financial assistance industry over the years, moving into a more holistic model as opposed to just paying for copay for medications, which is what the industry was doing.
Thirty years ago or so, the model was for organizations like ours to provide a safety net for individuals to be able to receive assistance and for donors to provide funding to meet their needs. Over the years, we've noticed that there's been a change in what those needs are.
It's been really impactful to not only help someone pay for medication treatment, but also to find the patients who may not even know that our help is out there, making sure that we're finding those individuals who don't have the same level of access as others.
Are there some successful models or strategies that you've seen for bridging these gaps?
Noonan: A model that we have found to be very successful is the way that we structure our assistance. We used to have a system where you had to apply for the very specific kind of help you needed. If you needed help with your premium, you had to put in an application for a very specific fund that was intended for premiums. It was a limited amount. It might be $1000.
If you needed $3000, you were done for the year. You'd have to find some other way to get assistance. There might be a fund for copayment for medication, but that’s $1000—you don't need that at all, but you can't get it and spread it over. So, we opened up our silos and created what we call Your Assistance. Your Choice.
It's a solid grant amount that's allotted to an individual who meets the criteria, but they get to choose how they spend that funding within the allowable things that we will cover, such as copayment for medication, premiums, and other medical expenses. It's different for everyone. Someone with a pulmonary disease will need help with oxygen, concentrators, and things to live a normal life outside home, but someone else might need orthopedic devices that help them be able to feed themselves. They don't need the same modalities that another person does.
Our programs are structured in an individual way towards the disease itself, and the people who apply and meet the criteria can use their funding however they see fit. The caveat to that, I always like to call out, is that we help with 4 items. I mentioned 3: copayment for medication, premium, medical expenses. The fourth is travel, but we kept travel at $500 a year in all of our programs.
We've heard nothing but positive things from our patients. It hasn't had any negative impact, other than maybe that sometimes our allotments are a little bit larger than they used to be when they were in those smaller, siloed funds—but not so much so that people aren't getting the opportunity to get help as well.
What innovations do you think will most meaningfully advance holistic patient assistance in the next few years?
Noonan: The change that we see coming, which is going to be impactful in terms of access—and that we may not fully understand how to be prepared for yet—is gene therapy.
These are curative types of treatments that are transforming people's lives, but they come with a whole different set of expenses. One thing that I've seen a lot of in the last 6 to 8 months at conferences are the scientific advancements with these treatments that we want young people to get—the earlier the better—but the treatments that prepare the body for these curative things cause infertility and other organ problems. People end up having failure of their kidneys, for example.
One big issue that I'm hearing a lot about is young people getting curative treatment, but it affects their ability to have children. It's not covered under insurance, and it's a need I see coming. Additionally, the cost overall of the cell and gene therapies—and ensuring that people have access to them—is a concern. There is concern around making sure there's a good model set up so that everyone can have access.
