Funding Patient Assistance: Overcoming Financial Barriers to Transplant

Helping people afford treatment

When a loved one is sick with a life-threatening disease, knowing a treatment exists is comforting. But not everyone can afford the life-saving treatment they need. They must rely on the generous contributions of others. They rely on people like you.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is dedicated to making transplant possible for all patients in need. Be The Match Foundation^SM supports our work by raising funds to help patients who need an unrelated donor bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. (Be The Match Foundation is the new name of The Marrow Foundation^®.)

Without this support, some patients will not receive the transplant they need. Many families find that their insurance does not cover all the costs that come with a transplant. Costs such as the search for a marrow donor or umbilical cord blood, travel and lodging when the transplant center is far from home, prescription co-pays and many other transplant-related costs may not be covered by insurance.

For more details about how our funds can help patients pay for transplant costs not covered by insurance, see financial assistance information for patients.

Offering hope with patient assistance funds

In 2008, we offered more than $5 million dollars to patients in need. That money helped more than 1,300 patients manage the costs of a transplant they desperately needed. Their lives were changed because of patient assistance funds and the support and generosity of people like you.

• Contribute now to help us change even more lives tomorrow.

There is hope

Imagine your child has leukemia. After initial devastation, you feel hopeful a bone marrow or cord blood transplant might treat the disease. Then, the financial reality sets in: even with help from your insurance company, treatment is too costly for you to proceed. This is what happened to Risa, a single mother, when her 2-year-old son Ajani was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia — read Ajani’s story.