ABOVE PHOT: Kristin Motley
By Kharisma McIlwaine
Healthcare is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries. In recent years, there has been a huge push for healthier lifestyle choices including weight loss and diet. These ideas are often promoted as preventative measures that lead to longevity and happier lives; but what about the people who are currently battling ailments? What about the people that require daily medication? What happens to the people who require prescription medications to live, when they can’t afford those medications?
Pharmacist Kristin Motley, founder of Health Care Solutions of Delaware Valley (HCS), is helping to make prescriptions more affordable. Here, Motley speaks about the work she is doing to shift the current landscape of the pharmaceutical industry.
Motley was born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania. She attended the College of Pharmacy at Florida A&M University (FAMU). After graduating from FAMU, she began working in the field and saw that changes needed to be made.
“I started to see a big need in healthcare in terms of helping people who were not able to afford their medications. I started Health Care Solutions in 2010 to help people get access to free medications.” Mobley said.
Motley spread the word about her company by doing health fairs, speaking at churches and libraries and by participating in various events throughout the tri-state area. Companies began taking notice of her leadership in this area, and brought Motley in to share her knowledge with their employees; this led to an expansion for Motley into the world of corporate health and wellness.
“I transitioned from being a traditional pharmacist to more of a patient advocate and into corporate health and wellness,” she said. “It doesn’t involve dispensing any medication I’m not behind the counter touching or seeing medications. I’m primarily focused on encouraging people and teaching them. I help create programs, and provide services to help people make healthy decisions so that they don’t have to take certain medications — especially drugs for heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, because we know those things are preventable. I have a team of people where we do work around helping people make healthy lifestyle decisions so they won’t have to take those expensive medications.”
Change is inevitable, but it’s also extremely difficult. Though it is possible to improve one’s health by making changes in diet and lifestyle, it’s important to acknowledge that all diseases are not preventable.
With cancer and various autoimmune diseases for instance, drug therapy is often necessary. Those medications, treatments, and requirements for daily care are not always completely covered by health insurance. Motley spoke about the work her company and its partners are doing in an effort to address some of those challenges.
“We (HCS) refer out. If a patient is having trouble paying for their medical bills, if they’re having trouble getting coverage for a procedure… we have a partner that we work with to help patients. We specialize in helping people to get their medications for free through pharmaceutical industry programs. If we have a patient who can’t afford to pay their medication, or if their co-pay is too high and they are unable to pay because of costs — we take them to get their drugs for free or we try to reduce the rate.”
In addition to the work, Motley is doing to help make medication affordable, she continues to be active in the community, hosting “The Healthier You Conference.” This year, the conference was held on May 11th, at The University of the Sciences.
“I started the conference three years ago primarily as a way to get people to come out and learn the information that they need to make better and healthier lifestyle choices,” Motley said. “We have speakers that come in to talk about stress management, weight loss, healthy eating, work lifestyle balance, and all those topics that people really need to know. People need to know the truth and they need practical ways to make changes.“
Lisa Thomas-Laury served as the keynote speaker for this year’s conference. She spoke openly about persevering in the face of her own health crisis. The conference also offered 50 minute workshops from about a dozen experts in various areas and fitness classes which included; tai chi, yoga, zumba, body weight and kickboxing.
Motley’s diligence in the pharmaceutical world earned her SCORE’s title of “The 2018 American Small Business Champion.” She spoke about the honor of receiving the award.
“It’s an award given by SCORE. SCORE is an organization that is funded by the government’s Small Business Association,” Motley said. ”They provide free mentoring to small business owners. They partner small business owners with various experts from accounting, HR, legal, marketing… whatever the company needs. They assign a volunteer expert to that small business owner and they work with them to resolve their problems and really focus on helping the company grow. I was chosen as one of the 2018 Small Business Champions, so that’s super exciting!”
The support that SCORE offers small business owners is invaluable. Entrepreneurs looking for business help can find a free local mentor at www.score.org.
The journey to healthier living comes with a number of challenges. Those challenges should not be amplified by the burden of unaffordable prescription costs. The community continues to be eternally grateful for the work that Kristin Motley is doing with Health Care Solutions. Anyone that is having difficulties paying for medication can contact HCS by visiting their website http://hcsdv.com/ or by calling (484) 234-2427.
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