A message from our Executive Director
D ear Friends,
I hope you have all been enjoying an exciting and promising new year. As you know, healthcare in our country is constantly changing. We continue to face many challenges in our mission of keeping our patients connected to their necessary medications. With your help, we will keep providing the assistance needed by so many in our area.
 
We trust that you will continue to journey with us as we strive to keep our patients connected to their medications and build a healthy community. In this issue of "A Dose of Ozanam," we are so excited to have expanded to Washington County, AL to help individuals that cannot afford their prescription medication. February is Black History Month and we honor Mrs. Anna Louise James-Petry, the first African-American female licensed Pharmacist in the United States.
 
Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy continues to be the medication safety net for Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia and now Washington County for many still uninsured individuals who are unable to afford the premium in the health care market place. In the fiscal year 2018 (October 1, 2017-September 30, 2018), Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy dispensed 31,000 generic prescriptions, many of which were for a 90-day supply, to over 1690 patients which were a slight increase over last year. The number of prescriptions per patient has increased. We dispensed close to 2,500 more prescriptions than the previous year.

We provided needy residents in our three-county service area with nearly $2.8 million in medication. Ozanam utilizes the ‘Access our Rx Patient Assistance Program’, which connects our patients to name brand prescription medicine from pharmaceutical and foundation Patient Assistance Programs.

Moreover, Ozanam Pharmacy have joined a Hospital and Home Health Transitional Care Team to assist the area hospital systems using Ozanam Pharmacy as a resource to decrease hospital readmission. As a result, we certified eleven emergency room nurses to ensure patients make a smooth transition to receive medication from Ozanam Pharmacy.

We are so grateful for each of you and your support of Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy. I wish I could share with you the gratitude that our patients often express as we provide the care and medications your support makes possible. Your support makes a difference every day. On behalf of our patients and team, thank you.

Laissez Le Bon Ton Roulet! 

Shearie Archer
 Executive Director
Photo courtesy: Tenaysha Carroll
Washington County, AL Here we come!
As of February 12, 2019, Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy expanded its life-sustaining prescription program to include uninsured financially challenged adults who are residents of Washington County. This expansion is made possible due to the generosity of a AT&T corporate funding.

Ozanam staff participated in a training hosted by Southwest Alabama Health Services in McIntosh, Alabama on Tuesday, February 12. We trained staff to certify patients to use Ozanam services from three agencies, Washington County Health Department, Mosteller Clinic and Southwest Alabama Health Services. We instructed and certified Deborah Leigh Dixon and Lynn Harrell from Alabama Department of Public Health, and Samantha Pettaway, Rick Layzod and Darlene Watson representing Southwest Alabama Health Services and Mosteller Clinic and Janet Eddings, Shelly Murphy, Shonda Bennett serving Southwest Alabama Health Services.

This expansion was critical to providing access to treatment to Washington residences. According to the U.S. Census, Washington County’s population as of 2017 is 16,531. The median income is $42,185 with 20.2% of the people under the poverty level. 

If you or someone you know is living in Washington County, AL, and cannot afford their medication, we may be able to help them. Contact 251.432.4111 for more information.  

Reference:
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/washingtoncountyalabama/LFE041217
Photo Courtesy: Shearie Archer
"Love and Bowling" was a hit at Eastern Shore Lanes on Tuesday, February 12!
We had 30 people to attend and raised over $500!

Ozanam Pharmacy thanks everyone for the support and participation in the event!
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Photo courtesy: Tenaysha Carroll
Meet
Mrs. Annie Daniels
Supervising Pharmacist
Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy
M rs. Annie Daniels has been with Ozanam since March, 2001. A native of Decatur, AL, Annie is a graduate of Auburn University with a B.S. degree in Pharmacy. Annie is married to Mike Daniels. He is a manager for Goodyear Commercial Tire Center. They have two sons, Michael and Jonathan.

Her personal philosophy is: "Treat others as you would want them to treat you. Kindness is always a good thing!"

What do like most about Ozanam Pharmacy? "The spirit and camaraderie of the staff and those volunteers to carry out our mission."

What is your favorite movie? "Dances with Wolves. I have been a bookworm ever since learning to read. I gravitate toward science fiction and historical fiction, but I will read almost anything!"

Do you have any pets? "We have a little brown hound named Charlie and a yellow Tabby cat named Oscar. Both were adopted from the Mobile SPCA."

What do you like to do for fun? "Reading, Walking, Gardening, and Painting. I am learning how to grow herbs to add them to my cooking.
They say since pharmacists know how to measure, we make good bakers and cooks. I do love to try new recipes and adjust them for our family's tastes."
Second committee meeting scheduled Thursday, February 21st at 3:00 pm!
"Jazz and Cocktails... An Rx for a Cause" Spring fundraiser will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2019 from 5:30 pm until 9:00 pm at Azalea Manor.

If you are interested in volunteering for this event our second planning meeting will be held on Thursday, February 21 th starting @ 3:00 pm at Ozanam Pharmacy, 109 S. Cedar St. Mobile, AL 36602. This meeting will go over the event, duties, sponsorship, etc.

We are also looking for dedicated volunteers to work at the pharmacy front desk.

For more information, click on the "I want to volunteer" button below. Thank you!
MAY 16, 2019
SAVE THE DATE!

Dad travels to Canada for son's medicine that would cost $53K in U.S.

In his  State of the Union address , President Trump said his next major priority is lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs. Americans spend more on prescription drugs than people pay in any other developed nation, an average of about $1,200 a year.

For some, the cost is so high they're forced to take extraordinary measures, reports CBS News correspondent Tony Dokoupil. Jon Yeagley said his 21-year-old son has a condition that caused him to start losing his hair around the seventh grade. Only one treatment worked but the drug was not covered by Yeagley's health insurance. So every three months, he drives 6.5 hours to Canada to buy the medicine.

"So right now, I'm paying $15,000 a year for this medicine, which costs in the United States $53,000 a year which I feel is… at best, criminal," Yeagley said. "There's no reason why an American should pay three times what somebody in Canada or Europe or Mexico has to pay."

That sentiment was echoed by Mr. Trump. "I am asking Congress to pass legislation that finally takes on the problem of global freeloading and delivers fairness and price transparency for American patients, finally," the president said Tuesday night.

Last week, the administration proposed "a rule to lower prescription drug prices… by encouraging manufacturers to pass discounts directly onto patients" instead of giving those rebates to middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. It said "this historic action… moves toward a new system that puts American patients first" while "bringing new transparency to prescription drug markets." 
But the PBMs oppose the administration's plan saying it will undercut their ability to bargain with drug makers for lower prices.  Express Scripts , acquired last year by Cigna, is one of the nation's largest PBMs.

"We get accused of being the middlemen but the reality is the most sophisticated employers and health plans employ us to drive better care at a lower cost," said Steve Miller, executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Cigna. "In the absence of PBMs, patients or planned sponsors will be spending literally billions and billions more on an annual basis."

The proposal from the administration would have to be passed by Congress. Meanwhile, consumer advocates recommend you shop around for prescription drugs the way you would for any other product."Prices can vary a lot. The same medication could be $8 at one pharmacy and $58 down the street. You just don't know until you ask," ClearHealthCosts.com founder and CEO Jeanne Pinder said.
For Yeagley, reform can't come soon enough.

"To my son, the medicine is priceless. I mean, it's given him an entirely new identity," Yeagley said. "I believe it has meant everything to him. It's made a tremendous difference in his personality and his well-being."If you're wondering if there are lower drug prices out there, our consumer advocate suggests checking online resources like  GoodRx  and  Blink Health . But even then, those prices might not be the lowest. She said the cash price might be lower than your insurance price, so you should always ask your pharmacist.
 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
February is Black History Month
We Celebrate:
Mrs. Anna Louise James-Petry
First female African-American Pharmacist and Author

A nna Louise James-Petry was born on January 19, 1886, in Hartford, CT. The daughter of a Virginia plantation slave who escaped to Connecticut, she grew up in  Old Saybrook . Dedicating her early life to education, Anna became, in 1908, the first African American woman to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy in New York. She operated a drugstore in Hartford until 1911, when she went to work for her brother-in-law at his pharmacy, making her the first female African American pharmacist in the state of Connecticut.

The pharmacy where James worked started out as a general store for the Humphrey Pratt Tavern in 1790. The store moved to its current location in 1877, where it became Lane Pharmacy. Peter Lane, one of only two black pharmacists in early Connecticut, added a soda fountain to his establishment in 1896.

When Peter got called away to fight in  World War I , h e left the pharmacy in the care of his sister-in-law, Anna Louise James. In 1917, Anna took over the operations and renamed her business James Pharmacy. Anna, known to local residents as “Miss James,” operated the business until 1967.

After her retirement, Anna Louise James kept residence in an apartment in the back of the pharmacy until her death in 1977. The store itself remained vacant from 1967 until 1980, when it was renovated and reopened in 1984. Although the building has changed owners numerous times over the years, the former pharmacy, now primarily an ice cream shop, retains much of the character James instilled in it. The shop still utilizes some of the original cabinetry, tables, chairs, and marble counter tops, as well as a 1940s milkshake machine.
In the 1990s, AT&T featured the James Pharmacy building in one of its television commercials. The building also received recognition as part of a documentary on local resident  Katharine Hepburn . In 1994, the James Pharmacy received a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

A registered pharmacist, she worked at the James Pharmacy before marrying in 1938 to Mr. George Petry. When they moved to Harlem, Ann Lane Petry began writing about urban ghetto life for several African American newspapers. Using her New York experiences, she published her first novel, The Street, in 1946; it became a best seller and established her as a major literary figure. This book sold over one million copies, making her the first African American female author to achieve this distinction.

Over the course of her productive career she produced several other titles related to African American life and history and often included scenes set in drug stores. In addition to The Street, Petry wrote five other books including, Country Place(1947), a novel inspired by her experiences growing up in Old Saybrook, and The Drug Store Cat (1949), which she based on her memories of working at James Pharmacy.

The memory of African American life in Old Saybrook during the early 1900s lives on in works by Ann Lane Petry, Anna Louise James’s niece and daughter of Peter Lane. Petry, who died in 1997, is remembered as one of the literary talents of the Harlem Renaissance.
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ... Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you. — Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." -Ephesians 4:32.
D ear fiends,
Did you know that you can donate to Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy in remembrance or in honor of a friend or loved one?
 
We fondly remember our loved ones who are no longer with us. This simple gesture of LOVE can be a thoughtful way to express how much that person meant to you. Just click on the "In Memory" button below and the link will take you directly to the Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy website to give what is in your heart.


Thank you,
Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy
251.432.4111 (office)
251.445.0981 (fax)
ozanampharamacy.org
Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.