Show-Me State Times

Connie Farrow, executive director of the newly-formed group, Patients Come First Missouri (PCF-MO), said that the “healthcare system doesn’t work for Missouri patients and families.”

Her statement comes as the group launched as part of a “national network” of similar groups in states across the country.

“Our healthcare system doesn’t work for Missouri patients and families,” said Farrow. “Unfortunately, it prioritizes the desires of special interests over ensuring patients and consumers can access the advanced and innovative medical care available in our healthcare system.” 

The PCF-MO website says it will “strive to put patients at the forefront of healthcare” through “advocacy, science, education, and collaboration” on issues including prescription drug payments and discounts, co-pay assistance, government drug price negotiations, and the federal 340b drug discount program, among others.

The 340b program was created in 1992 to provide discounted healthcare, including prescription drugs, to healthcare providers which, in turn, are supposed to pass the savings along to low-income patients.

Participating hospitals, however, “often extend their 340B discounts to clinics in well-off communities, where they can charge privately insured patients more than those on Medicaid,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

There are 69 Missouri hospitals participating in that program, reported Show-Me State Times.

Farrow previously worked as a reporter for The Associated Press in Kansas City from 1993 to 2005. She also worked as the communications director for Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, and was a Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow from 2012-2013. 

Patients Come First has also launched groups in New Jersey and California.