Another Source of Financial Help for Chronic Diseases

We've covered lots of sources of financial help in health care, and specifically sources of help dealing with cancer.  Now there's another source of possible help for severe, chronic illnesses, including several types of cancer--The Chronic Disease Fund.  It's a non-profit that helps those who suffer from several specific diseases--each administered from a separate fund--deal with the sorts of crushing costs that may not be covered by insurance, other drug programs,  transportation to and from medical treatments if they are far away, among others.  The list of diseases they cover is listed here, but since each one comes from a different fund, they may not have funds to cover a new patient with a particular condition. Those diseases for which they are not accepting new patients have an asterisk next to them. To see if you qualify, see the application process.  Besides this, they have a service called Navidebt which works with their patients to deal with the medical debt that you have already incurred.

Free Help to Deal With Your Medical Bills and Debts

There's a lot of baloney about "free money to pay your bills," and when you cut through the hype, it means "free to pay your bills with anything left over from Social Security or welfare."  Big deal.  But there IS something--or somebody--that can help with your medical bills. 

What many people don't know is that most hospitals have a finance office with which you can talk and work out payment issues, or contest bills that may have mistakes (here's an eye opening look at what mistakes hospitals can make while billing).  Furthermore, it helps to have a patient advocate help you sort them out.  A "patient advocate" is someone who represents you, who knows what to look for in patient billing, and knows about different sources of financial help that may be available to you.  For people with a "life threatening or debilitating disease", the Patient Advocate Foundation may work as advocates to represent you and help you negotiate your bills and find money to pay them if possible, all for free.  They may also help with insurance coding, preauthorizations and appeals, medical debt crisis, co-payment assistance for medicine or treatments,  Medicaid, Medicare, the process of filing for disability with Social Security, and more.  To see if you qualify, check out their website or call them toll-free at (800) 532-5274.

Their website is full of goodies by itself. Their resources page links to lots of information about financial help, support services, and employment rights for the severely and chronically ill.  Their financial help page includes a link to state resources and a list of companies that will convert life insurance policies into cash.

Raising Money for Individuals with Health Problems.

Everyone has seen local campaigns to help those in medical need--say, cancer patients or people who need expensive, experimental surgery. How do you even begin a money-raising campaign in those cases? Before you even begin, take stock of your current situation—assessing your financial needs and how to deal with them. United Way of Greater Toledo has a good website on coping with medical debt. It includes how to work with your insurance company, the possibility of appeals, of debt collection, bankruptcy, garnishments, and so forth. It’s worth a read.

The Step-by-Step Fundraising site has an excellent blog on how to raise money for individuals. Sandra Sims, the author, lists checking for governmental and private sources of help. A good place to start is at the local and national organizations that advocate for people with a particular disease or health condition, such as cancer or muscular dystrophy. You local library should be able to provide directories with this information.

For those in need of an organ transplant or suffering from a catastrophic injury dealing with brain or spinal injury, HelpHopeLive is a nonprofit organization that will help people create a fundraising campaign, create a website, and disperse money as needed.  See their website for more information, or call  800.642.8399.

You can also check out the Foundation Center’s Directory of Grants for Individuals. It’s a fee-based site, but it’s available for free at every Foundation Center Cooperating Collection, of which there are 400+ in the United States. In it, you can search by geography and subject for foundations that might give to an individual with this illness, or provide other help.

You may also mount a fundraising campaign on Give Forward, a portal that allows individuals to "crowdfund" source for funding for their medical needs.

And, although it’s geared for nonprofits and small groups, another good read is The Accidental Fundraiser by Stephanie Roth and Mimi Ho. It gives you the nuts and bolts of how to run small-scale fundraising—for instance, how many people you need to run that community dinner, or bowlathon, and how to run it most effectively.