When Katie H. was diagnosed with breast cancer, the physical and emotional toll was overwhelming enough. But there was another challenge she hadn’t anticipated: the crushing financial burden of her treatment.
Despite having insurance, Katie faced a deductible that reset annually and mounting costs for her infusion therapy. Like millions of Americans, she found herself caught in an impossible situation – needing life-saving medication but struggling to afford it.
This wasn’t Katie’s first experience navigating a broken healthcare system. A few years earlier, when her husband fell ill, she took on the exhausting task of hunting down every available discount and assistance program. It became like a second full-time job, one she took on after she finished work every day as a teacher – identifying manufacturers, researching programs, filling out endless paperwork, all while caring for a sick family member.
When her own diagnosis came, Katie simply didn’t have the energy to do it all over again. This time, she didn’t have to. Find out why.
The hidden crisis in medication affordability
Here’s a startling reality: more than $5 billion in pharmaceutical patient support is available annually,1 yet an estimated 97% of eligible patients never access pharmacy copay assistance.2 That’s billions of dollars designed to help people access critical medications, sitting unused while patients struggle.
The problem isn’t a lack of available aid—it’s that the system for accessing it is broken. Patients already dealing with illness are expected to navigate a complex maze of applications, eligibility requirements, and enrollment processes. Many don’t even know these programs exist.
Patients are desperate for a trusted guide to help navigate a complex and opaque system, and to point them in the right direction. They need help navigating a landscape that seems designed to overwhelm rather than support them.
Meanwhile, providers are left carrying the cost of uncompensated care as more patients struggle to cover rising deductibles and out-of-pocket bills. Since 2010, U.S. household income has grown by about 22%, but the basics of daily life have surged far faster: food costs are up 30%, childcare about 65%, and housing nearly 50%. Health insurance deductibles have climbed a staggering 230% over the past two decades. Families may be earning slightly more, yet every essential expense consumes a larger share of their income, leaving little room for healthcare costs that too often fall to the bottom of the priority list.
A digital safety net at the point of need
That’s why Cedar partnered with Novant Health, one of the Southeast’s largest health systems, to pilot automated medication assistance—a program that fundamentally changes how patients access financial support for their medications.
Instead of requiring patients to seek out assistance programs on their own, the technology automatically identifies potentially eligible patients and matches them to available support right within the billing experience. Patients simply input their information, apply for support, and often receive decisions right away. For providers, the program improves yield on high-cost therapies, turning uncollectible risk into reimbursable revenue without adding manual workload.
Real impact for real people
The results speak for themselves. At Novant Health, patients approved for medication assistance have received grants averaging more than $12,000 per application.3 For many, this transforms an impossible financial burden into manageable care.
Over 40% of those using the program at Novant Health come from ALICE households (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed)4—families who work and have insurance but still struggle to make ends meet, especially when faced with unexpected medical bills. These are the people most at risk of skipping medications or abandoning treatment due to cost, yet they’re often overlooked by (or don’t qualify for) traditional assistance programs. Medication assistance ensures they get the support they need at the moment it matters most.
For Katie, securing assistance through the program meant she could stay on her treatment without the constant weight of financial worry. She didn’t have to become a full-time researcher and advocate again. She could focus on her health and recovery.
Closing the gap when it matters most
As healthcare’s affordability crisis continues to accelerate, solutions like medication assistance represent more than just technology – they’re a lifeline. They shift the burden of navigating financial aid off patients during their most vulnerable moments and ensure that available support actually reaches the people who need it.
Medication assistance is part of Cedar Cover, a comprehensive digital safety net that includes Medicaid enrollment, proactive Medicaid renewal, denials resolution, and other affordability solutions designed to help patients access coverage while protecting provider revenue.
Because when someone like Katie is fighting for their life, they shouldn’t also have to fight to afford their treatment.
See how Cedar Cover helps patients like Katie access the care they need. Explore our solutions.
Brandon Minow is VP, Content, Communications and Experiential Marketing at Cedar
