With rising health care costs and uncertainty in the future of health care coverage, access to prescription medication can be difficult, especially for people who are poor. The St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy in Biloxi, Mississippi is trying to alleviate that by helping medically needy people obtain prescription medication and facilitating access to all available resources for their prescription needs.

Founded in 1998, it is a nonprofit agency that boasts an innovative approach to filling a gap in health care services. It is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization has provided free prescription services to more than 5,000 medically needy South Mississippians. Although sponsored by St. Vincent de Paul, the Pharmacy is independently incorporated and does not discriminate by religion, race, ethnicity, sex or age. The Pharmacy’s staff, Board and people it serves, reflect its community.

2015 SERVICE STATISTICS

Number of individual program participants provided with prescription medicine from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015: 663  

Number of prescriptions filled in 2015 by the Pharmacy: 22,599

Value of medicine dispensed during 2015:   $1,126,264.00

Number of prescriptions filled through Patient Assistance Programs filled through St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy in 2015: 352

Value of medicine obtained for program participants through the PAPs program in 2015: $367,289.00

More about what they do and their structure from their website:

The Pharmacy is chartered to serve the Diocese of Biloxi consisting of the seventeen southernmost counties in Mississippi.  The Pharmacy requires applicants to be current residents of its geographic area and provide current documentation proving the applicant is unable to secure needed prescription medicine without assistance.  The Pharmacy will provide, at no charge, non-controlled prescription medicine once per month for up to six months at which time the applicant must re-apply by providing updated financial information. In addition to providing prescriptions, the pharmacy serves as a referral network connecting people to other supportive resources such as “Patient Assistance Programs” through the pharmaceutical companies and the Supplemental Assistance program for Medicare Part D.

 

The Pharmacy is centrally located in Biloxi, Mississippi with satellite offices in Hancock County, Jackson County, and Hattiesburg.  It is open to the public two Mondays each month in Bay St. Louis and Moss Point and on Tuesdays in Biloxi for financial screening and resource networking and on Thursdays in Biloxi to fill prescriptions. We are open in Hattiesburg on the third Wednesday and Fourth Friday of the Month in Hattiesburg. The Pharmacy is largely staffed (including its eight pharmacists with the exception of the Executive Director, Case Manager and the Executive Assistant) by volunteers.  Over seventy-five people make the Pharmacy’s service possible each week with an additional forty people providing support, oversight and fundraising help. The Pharmacy is able to focus 93% of its total budget on medicines.  It is a unique service in South Mississippi.

Sources:

St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy Facebook Page

St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy Website