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Ithaca, NY - Recently, United Way of Tompkins County received a $2,000 donation from the International Food Network, who was the recipient of the annual Community Service Award given by Cornell Real Estate.   This gift will be used to support the Urgent Rx Prescription Program as it expands to offer assistance to uninsured patients of the Ithaca Free Clinic and to uninsured inpatients being discharged from Cayuga Medical Center located in Ithaca, NY.  The expansion of services will assist even more uninsured individuals in Tompkins County who need prescriptions filled as part of the urgent medical care.

Urgent Rx was created through a collaboration of the Brooks Family Foundation, Cayuga Medical Center, the Human Services Coalition, Kinney Drugs, Inc., and United Way of Tompkins County.  Initially, Urgent Rx provided uninsured patients treated in Cayuga Medical Center's Emergency Department and Convenient Care Center at Ithaca with vouchers for prescription medicine.  In the first year of operation, Urgent Rx Prescription Program helped more than 600 Tompkins County patients without health insurance obtain urgently needed medicine in 2006.  In its first year, Urgent Rx provided the financial assistance to fill more than 1,000 prescriptions.

This Program enables patients to complete the recommended treatment plans for their urgent medical problems, having a direct impact on their recovery and their health.  Urgent Rx was initially made possible through generous start-up funding from the Brooks Family Foundation, Human Services Coalition, and individuals and corporate gifts made through the annual United Way of Tompkins County Community Campaign.

United Way of Tompkins County is committed to addressing unmet health and human service needs in our community by working with local partners to develop solutions. "Urgent Rx provides our community with an innovative and effective tool for addressing a real community need.  It is a new, and now proven option for helping healthcare providers meet the prescription needs of Tompkins County residents," stated James Brown, President of United Way of Tompkins County.   

Urgent Rx covers a limited supply (up to two weeks) of urgently needed medicines. The program covers a limited number of generic-brand medications used to treat common, urgent healthcare problems. (It does not cover long-term prescription medication needs.) Patients who qualify for Urgent Rx receive a voucher with their prescriptions from the doctor, which they take to one of the three Kinney Drugs stores in Tompkins County: Ithaca, Dryden, and Trumansburg. Urgent Rx patients also receive follow-up outreach from the Human Services Coalition about federal and state-funded health insurance programs and other resources.

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