For Health Care Professionals
At Merck, we realize that some patients who need specific Merck medications and
adult vaccines may not be able to afford them and do not have access to them through insurance coverage.
The MerckHelps suite of programs are private and confidential. They provide certain products free of charge to eligible individuals,
primarily the uninsured who, without our assistance, could not afford needed
Merck medicines or adult vaccines.
This program offers temporary assistance to patients who generally meet the following requirements:
- The patient must be a US resident.
- The patient has no pharmaceutical insurance coverage.*
- The patient meets specified financial criteria and cannot afford to pay for medication.
- The physician/prescriber has determined that a Merck product may be appropriate for treating the patient.
* Individuals who don’t meet the insurance criteria may still qualify for the Merck Patient Assistance Program if they attest that they have special circumstances of financial and medical hardship, and their income meets the program criteria.
We have designed the programs to make it convenient for patients:
- A single application may provide for up to 1 year of products free of charge to eligible individuals and an individual may reapply as many times as needed.
- Once eligibility has been verified, the medication(s) will be sent directly to the patient's home unless otherwise indicated by the licensed provider.
- Medication(s) will be labeled for the patient.
- Prescriptions with refills are accepted.
- Patients can initiate the prescription refill process directly.
Information regarding the Merck Vaccine Patient Assistance Program:
The Program uses the following criteria to determine licensed prescriber participation:
- Stocks Merck vaccines
- Willing to screen applications according to Merck's eligibility criteria
- Willing to work with Merck's vendor to process applicants
- Willing to accept potential auditing to participate in the program
- Willing to accept that no vaccine administration fee is provided by Merck
- Willing to keep individual immunization records
The Merck Patient Assistance Program, Inc., may be able to provide medicines and adult vaccines free of charge through periodic bulk replenishments to eligible facilities that serve a large percentage of low-income, uninsured patients. Types of eligible facilities include outpatient pharmacies of disproportionate share hospitals, nonprofit health care clinics, and community health facilities that have a licensed outpatient central fill pharmacy that is owned and operated by the facility. The eligible facilities, under an agreement with the Merck Patient Assistance Program, Inc., review eligibility of patients for patient assistance under the program's criteria with replenishment being limited to patients meeting specified income and insurance criteria.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about the Merck Bulk Replacement Patient Assistance Program, please call 855-842-0539, 9 AM to 5 PM ET, Monday through Friday.
For the Merck Vaccines Patient Assistance Program, Merck will replace the doses of vaccine administered to approved patients via monthly shipments to the licensed prescriber. Please confirm patient eligibility before administrating vaccines. Merck retains the right to select either prefilled syringes or vials for replacement doses, which may or may not be the same as what was administered to approved patients.
If you have any questions:
- If you have any general questions about the Merck patient assistance programs, please call 800-727-5400 Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 8 PM ET.
- For contact information about a specific program, please refer to the program and contact information on the Programs page.
Other:
- Merck reserves the right to change or discontinue these programs at any time.
- Products distributed through the Merck Patient Assistance Program, Inc. are free of charge to all eligible patients. Merck is not associated with any individuals or organizations that may charge patients a fee to assist them in completing applications for our program. These individuals or organizations are acting independently of Merck, and do not have Merck's consent.
Before prescribing any Merck product, please read the Prescribing Information.