PhRMA’s Medicine Assistance Tool (MAT) is a web platform designed to help patients, caregivers and health care providers learn more about the resources available through the various biopharmaceutical industry programs offered to those who need financial support due to their lack of insurance or inadequate prescription medicine coverage. MAT is not its own patient assistance program, but rather a search engine for many of the support programs and resources that the biopharmaceutical industry has been offering for decades.

Health care providers play a crucial role in spreading the word that patients in need may be eligible for various forms of assistance in obtaining their medications, including some free or nearly free options. Physicians, nurses and other health care providers can also go to www.mat.org to get information on available patient assistance programs, co-pay support programs and other helpful resources for the patients under their care. Additionally, many of the financial assistance programs require physicians to sign and fill out portions of program enrollment forms, including adding patient prescription information. Some programs also require the physician to mail or fax the enrollment form on behalf of the patient.

No. MAT helps you find programs and resources you may be eligible for but does not process the enrollment applications for those programs. A program’s enrollment application typically provides directions on where it should be emailed, faxed or mailed.