PAN strengthens commitment to health equity
As one of the nation’s largest and most impactful charitable patient assistance foundations, the PAN Foundation today strengthened its commitment to health equity by announcing its undertaking of three key principles:
- Providing financial assistance to patients who need it the most.
- Partnering with organizations that work towards health equity.
- Advocating for policies that promote health equity.
We acknowledge that systemic inequities have prevented historically marginalized and underserved populations from accessing affordable and quality healthcare. And social drivers of health—such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, socio-economic status, geographic location, education level—have led to different health outcomes for far too many people. In the United States, for example, African Americans are twice as likely as non-Hispanic white people to develop Alzheimer’s disease1 and people living in low- and middle-income counties are more likely to die of cancer than those who live in high-income counties2.
Underpinning our commitment to health equity, PAN’s leadership team and Board of Directors recognize the importance of ensuring that it is at the forefront of our mission and programs. We need to do more than merely talk about the need to achieve equitable health outcomes; we must also act by living out our organizational value of “intention.” That’s why PAN is dedicated to making intentional, data-informed decisions around our approach to health equity and measuring our progress along the way.
“Alongside our Board of Directors and leadership team, I am committed to ensuring that we play an active role in advancing health equity through our programs, partnerships, and advocacy efforts,” said PAN’s President and CEO, Kevin L. Hagan. “The principles we’ve outlined today are just a start. We look forward to working with our patients, network of healthcare and pharmacy professionals, and diverse national and community-based organizational partners to identify what we can do to help move the needle towards health equity. Because our work is not done until everyone has equitable access to affordable healthcare, regardless of who they are or where they live.”
In addition to our formal commitment through these three key principles, we have also embedded health equity champions throughout the organization to help ensure health equity remains top-of-mind throughout all our programs, initiatives, and workstreams. These health equity champions represent leaders across the organization and are responsible for promoting and driving health equity principles within each organizational department. Because addressing health equity cannot just be a top-down approach, it must live throughout the organization.
“Too often, historically marginalized and underserved communities have been faced with social, systemic, and structural factors contributing to disparities in health outcomes. It’s time to address these factors and meet people where they are,” said PAN’s Chief Diversity and Health Equity Officer, Kim Baich. “At PAN, our diverse team is eager to play our part in addressing health inequities so that everyone can access the affordable and lifesaving healthcare they deserve.”
About the PAN Foundation
The PAN Foundation is an independent, national 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to helping federally and commercially insured people living with life-threatening, chronic, and rare diseases with the out-of-pocket costs for their prescribed medications.
Since 2004, we have provided more than 1.1 million underinsured patients with $4 billion in financial assistance. Partnering with generous donors, healthcare providers, and pharmacies, we provide the underinsured population access to the healthcare treatments they need to best manage their conditions and focus on improving their quality of life. Learn more at panfoundation.org.
1 Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, “African Americans & Alzheimer’s Disease“. DementiaOutreach.mayo.edu
2 National Cancer Institute, “Eight Factors May Link Disparities in Cancer Death Rates and Income“. Cancer.gov
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