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Home My WebLink About05-02-2018 Item #3, Reinhart1 Tonikian, Victoria From:Goodwin, Heather Sent:Friday, April 27, 2018 1:55 PM To:Tonikian, Victoria Subject:FW: HRC Mtg. 5/4/18 Attachments:HRC Letter.doc Victoria, Can you please post & distribute this letter as agenda correspondence to the HRC for the May 2nd HRC meeting? Thank you, Heather Goodwin, CMC Deputy City Clerk City Administration City Clerk's Office 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3249 E hgoodwin@slocity.org T 805.781.7103 slocity.org From: Sarah Reinhart < Sent: Friday, April 27, 2018 12:31 PM To: Goodwin, Heather <hgoodwin@slocity.org> Subject: HRC Mtg. 5/4/18 Hi Heather, I hope you are doing well. Could you make sure that the HRC commissioners get this letter before next week's meeting? Best, Sarah Montes Reinhart Executive Director Alliance for Pharmaceutical Access, Inc. apameds.org (O)805.614.2040 (M)949.280.2062 Received: 04/27/2018 Item Number: 3 Phone: 805.614.2040 Fax: 805.614.2010 Office Location: 506 E. Plaza Drive #5 Santa Maria, CA 93454 Mailing Address:237 Town Center West#122 Santa Maria, CA 93458 Email:Sarah.Reinhart@dignityhealth.org Web: www.apameds.org April 27, 2018 Attn: Human Relations Commissioners; Robert Clayton, Barrie DuBois, Samuel Hughes, Emily Rosten, Carol Sexton, Michael Hopkins, and Nancy Welts. As you prepare to make important recommendations and budget allocations for the 2018-2019 Grants In-Aid program, I urge to consider the work and impact that the Alliance f or Pharmaceutical Access (APA) has on health of our community members. In 2017, we secured 141 prescription medications, and 26 individual health grants for the uninsured and underinsured residents of San Luis Obispo, this included helping those afflicted with Cancer, HIV and HEP C (just to name a few) obtain free or steeply discounted treatments. We know first-hand that the issue of healthcare justice has many components and our work can seem like a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. However, until there’s a permanent solution to the affordability and accessibility of medications we will continue to do everything we can to serve those in our community who are choosing between filling a prescription or feeding their families. Due to limited funding in San Luis Obispo, we were only able to prove 6 hours of direct advocacy services for SLO residents at the SLO NOOR Clinic. Yet, the value of this work has had a lasting impact on the health and wellness of the people we served. When the SLO County, Medically Indigent Program turns people away due to immigration status or other factors, APA is there as a last safety net. Our partnership with the SLO NOOR Clinic has been very valuable over the past few years in serving the uninsured. Thankfully, they have been able to secure enough funding to hire one of our trained medication access advocates to assist their patients in-house. While we are grateful that a portion of the uninsured population is getting helped, we are still struggling to fill the gaps of those who have insurance but are facing medication coverage gaps. This includes many vulnerable SLO seniors. At least once a week, we get calls from social workers, and ER discharge nurses who are desperate to get their patients help. All of the public funding we receive goes directly towards securing medication treatments. We must continue to work together to ensure that residents of San Luis Obispo who are afflicted with life-threatening chronic and rare diseases have access to the medication treatments they need. While there are many pressing issues in our community, I hope you can see the value that the APA Medication access program provides. Not to mention the return on investment. Overall (agency-wide) in 2017, we secured 1,605 prescriptions, that's 2.6 million dollars-worth in monetary value of prescriptions and health treatments (this was accomplished with a staff of 4 part-time advocates including myself). With Deep Gratitude, Sarah Montes Reinhart, MPP Phone: 805.614.2040 Fax: 805.614.2010 Office Location: 506 E. Plaza Drive #5 Santa Maria, CA 93454 Mailing Address:237 Town Center West#122 Santa Maria, CA 93458 Email:Sarah.Reinhart@dignityhealth.org Web: www.apameds.org