National Transplant Assistance Fund -The Financial Link to Transplantation


Jerry Cahill interviews Lynne Samson, the Executive Director of the NTAF on how they can help with fundraising for a costly lung transplant.

Mission Statement: To help raise funds for transplant and catastrophic injury patients by providing compassionate support, education and expertise to them, their families and communities.

• NTAF is a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 charitable organization and contributions to NTAF are tax-deductible. NTAF was founded in 1983
• Lynne states: "it's better to start fundraising as soon as you are listed at a transplant center"
• Lynn states: "people in the community love to support a cause and this gives emotional support to the patient and family going through the crisis"
• Fundraising events include: golf outings, spaghetti dinners, chicken fries, dances, and car washes,  to name a few.
• Money can be used for insurance co-pays, medications, re-locating for a transplant, meals, lodging, and living donor costs.
• NTAF has over 1200 active patient accounts and has risen over $4 million this year.
• "The goal of NTAF is to help the patient and family feel financially, emotionally, and mentally secure and that through the community support they will feel cared for"

National Transplant Assistance Fund

“Jump Drive? for Better Health Care
 
Jerry Cahill interviews Dr. Jamie Wells on putting medical information on a “jump drive?

• "Jump Drive?: also know as a USB drive or flash drive is a “plug-and-play? portable storage device that is lightweight enough to attach to a key chain that cost under $20.
• Dr. Wells states: “jump drives empowers us in our health care and enables patients to be their own advocates
• Medical information & records can be stored on a “jump drive? and this is extremely important to someone with a chronic disease or medical condition for doctor visits and emergency room visits.
• “Jump Drives? contain such information as emergency contacts, physicians contacts, past medical history, allergies/adverse effects, current medications, and laboratory test information.
• The BOOMER ESIASON FOUNDATION  will be putting a “Jump Drive? Medical Template up on their site (www.esiason.org) and offering the drives to individuals with CF with proper documentation.