Misty Patterson: the patient advocate
Navigating a serious illness can take a village, and Misty Patterson is grateful to be a part of it.
For Misty Patterson, the most rewarding part of her job is being able to advocate for her patients and help them realize they have someone on their side.
When she first started her work as a patient care coordinator, she discovered that only six of her patients could afford their medications. Other patients were without resources to pay for their prescriptions or couldn’t qualify for financial support-denied extra support by the social security administration. The result was dozens of patients who weren’t getting the medical care they needed.
She shared that now with PAN, she has never missed an opportunity to get financial assistance for a patient in need.
“PAN has helped numerous patients with so much that I started telling everyone I knew about all of the different disease opportunities they offer,” she said.
Misty learned early on in her career that medication costs are just one part of the equation, noting that many patients live on less than $1,200 a month and struggle to pay for their rent and other bills. She says patients often worry about having to sell their homes, drain their retirement savings, or forego other bills to afford their care.
Misty knows patients need more than just financial assistance, so whenever she can, she provides that too. She keeps an updated list of local and state resources on hand, always ready and willing to share with any patients in need.
To further help her patients, Misty also takes advantage of FundFinder, signing up for notifications for available funding for her patients. She has even interrupted her vacation to enroll patients for assistance when a notification came in at the beach.
Those of us working directly with the sick patients are very blessed that we can give them a little hope that tomorrow won’t cost them everything they have worked their whole lives to for.
Do you have a story about how PAN has helped your patients? We would love to hear from you!
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