By Alan Klein, Chief Growth and Strategy Officer, PAN Foundation
Everyone deserves access to affordable, equitable healthcare. Unfortunately, far too many Americans continue to face barriers accessing the care they need. This article serves as a call to action for patient stakeholders to support our solutions.
The PAN Foundation’s Center for Patient Research found that healthcare access and affordability are not getting better but are getting worse in some cases. According to our 2025 State of Patient Access Report, patients living with chronic health conditions rate the overall state of healthcare access in the U.S. a C (75.2).
As a leading charitable patient assistance foundation, PAN’s role in accelerating access to care goes beyond providing critical financial assistance to patients in over 80 disease areas. We also address persistent barriers to care by advocating for policy change and empowering people through education as they navigate their healthcare journey.
But we need your help. Contact us today to learn how you can support our efforts to improve access to care through our advocacy and education initiatives outlined below.
Accelerating access through advocacy
In our role as a national healthcare advocacy organization, we’re committed to amplifying patient voices around key policies that improve access to care. We do this by:
- Activating our community to share their experiences with elected officials through grassroots advocacy campaigns
- Providing policy recommendations to key stakeholders
- Partnering with other patient advocacy organizations
Medicare Part D reforms
Over the past 10 years, the PAN Foundation has been a leading voice championing Medicare Part D reforms that were ultimately enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. In fact, we helped develop the idea of smoothing out-of-pocket prescription medication costs throughout the year, which later became the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. We continue to help inform the implementation strategy of these reforms to ensure they meet the needs of patients nationwide.
Other key policy priorities
We are also addressing other longstanding healthcare access challenges including:
- Alternative funding programs (AFPs)
- Telehealth service expansion
- Utilization management practices, like prior authorization and step therapy
- Clinical trial participation
- Coverage of dental, vision, and hearing services
Advocacy Action Summit
Engaging patient advocates from across the country is critical to the work of the PAN Foundation. Through our annual Advocacy Action Summit, we bring a diverse group of patient advocates to Washington, DC, to receive expert training, connect with other passionate advocates, and take their message directly to policymakers on Capitol Hill.
Since we launched our first Advocacy Action Summit in 2023, we’ve achieved the following:
- 100+ advocates have met with their Congressional members
- 440+ meetings have taken place on Capitol Hill
This September, we will bring together 85 advocates representing 35 U.S. states for our 2025 Advocacy Action Summit to put a human face on the policy decisions that affect millions.
Improving access through education
Healthcare in the U.S. is complicated. That’s why we’re focused on making it easy for people as they navigate their own healthcare.
Last year we empowered 65 million people on their healthcare journeys by expanding our educational footprint around:
- Alternative funding programs (AFPs)
- Clinical trials
- Medicare Part D reforms
But this is just the beginning. Our goal is to reach even more people with the information and resources they need to make informed healthcare decisions.
Alternative funding programs (AFPs)
We recognize the harm that AFPs can have on patients trying to access their medications. That’s why in 2024 PAN launched an AFP educational campaign aimed at raising awareness about AFPs, highlighting their harm to patients, and exploring steps impacted patients can take.
This campaign has seen significant engagement, including:
- 340,000+ individuals reached through targeted communications
- 4,000+ views of PAN’s animated explainer videos
Clinical trial participation
Our Opening Doors to Clinical Trials initiative, launched in 2024, continues to lead the way in providing accessible, straightforward resources for patients and providers including a digital education platform, online trial finder tool, and one-on-one support through our ComPANion Access Navigators.
To date, we’ve seen:
- 100,000+ visits to PAN’s digital education hub
- 5,600+ calls answered by our ComPANion Access Navigators
We’ve also found that nearly 7 in 10 individuals felt more motivated to learn about clinical trials after using our digital platform.
Medicare Part D reforms
We are also scaling our nationwide educational campaign to empower even more patients and healthcare professionals with knowledge about recent Medicare Part D reforms. Since launching this campaign, we’ve reached:
- 58+ million people through a national radio tour
- 150,000+ visitors to PAN’s digital education hub
Going beyond financial assistance
The PAN Foundation will continue to provide financial assistance to thousands of people across the country each year. We also remain committed to our efforts in advocacy and education as we work toward a future where equitable, accessible healthcare is a reality for all.
This is your call to action. We hope you'll join us. Contact us today.