For those of you who want to know exactly where your pledge dollars are spent LLS provides a number of concentrated facts related to patient care services and distributions for research. Please check back for regular updates.

As part of its patient services LLS maintains an insurance co-pay assistance program that assists patients with cancer treatment insurance expenses, including Medicare Part B, Medicare Plan D and Medicare Supplementary Health Insurance costs.

In fiscal year 2010 LLS has provided $135,272 of co-payment assistance to its 54 New York City chapter patients.

Donations also support other patient services, such as private consultations with oncology experts and bone marrow donor registrations.

• $50- registers 1 person to be a bone marrow donor
• $100- pays for cost of 4 patients chemo drug prescription co-payms
• $500 provides patient aid to person with blood cancer for a year
• $1,000- provides one-on-one meetings with health care specialists to design and  discuss their treatment plans

During fiscal year 2010 the LLS New York City chapter spent $244,772 to help 784 patients who benefitted from these programs and other forms of assistance.

Thank you once again for your support and I look forward to providing updates throughout the marathon season,

-Eric Baum