Organization
PAN Foundation and ALS: what they fund and how to apply
The PAN Foundation, full name Patient Access Network Foundation, is a US charity that paid medication copays for people who already had insurance. It merged with the Patient Advocate Foundation in March 2026, and the combined assistance program is now called TotalAssist. TotalAssist has no ALS fund. We read all 146 published funds on July 27, 2026, and none covers ALS.
How to use this page
If a clinic handout, an older article or an earlier version of this site told you to call the PAN Foundation about ALS, this page explains what changed and where to go instead. Copay assistance never paid for equipment or care hours anyway. It pays the patient’s share of a prescription. Read the next two sections and you can stop, in about four minutes.
What they provide
Everything below was read from the organization’s own websites on July 27, 2026.
There is no ALS fund right now
This is the answer most people arrive for, so it goes first. On July 27, 2026 we pulled the full published list of active TotalAssist funds. There were 146. None of them is ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
We also checked the TotalAssist medication index, the list of every drug attached to a fund. None of the standard ALS prescriptions appear in it: riluzole, Rilutek, Tiglutik, Exservan, edaravone, Radicava, Relyvrio, Nuedexta, Qalsody or tofersen.
There are funds for other neuromuscular and neurological conditions, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Those do not help an ALS application. The diagnosis has to match the fund.
Check for yourself on the TotalAssist funds list and the medication index. If an ALS fund opens later, that is where it will appear first.
TotalAssist grants, if a fund for your condition exists
TotalAssist is the merged organization’s charitable assistance program, launched July 1, 2026. It is run by the Patient Advocate Foundation, a US nonprofit founded in 1996 that helps patients with access to and the cost of care.
Where a fund exists, grants can pay medication copays, coinsurance and deductibles, health insurance premiums, office visit charges on the day of treatment, and administration charges related to treatment.
Worth knowing if someone in the household has a second diagnosis that is on the list, such as heart failure, COPD or a cancer. Money freed up there is still money.
Fund open alerts
Funds open and close as donations arrive and run out, so the practical move is to be told rather than to keep checking. TotalAssist lets you pick text, email or an automated phone call, choose as many funds as you want, and change preferences later.
Sign up on the TotalAssist notifications page.
FundFinder, which watches other charities too
FundFinder is a free web app operated by the Patient Advocate Foundation. It lets you track financial assistance funds for your conditions across eight charitable organizations, not just this one, and alerts you when they open.
That is the more useful tool for an ALS family, because the fund most likely to open for you sits at a different charity. It is at fundfinder.org.
Case management, free and not tied to any fund
Separate from the grants, the Patient Advocate Foundation offers one-on-one case management. Trained staff work on insurance problems, access to care, and cost disputes. It is free for eligible patients and their families, and it does not depend on an ALS fund existing.
Call 800-532-5274, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm Eastern. They limit how many new cases they take each day, so call early rather than late.
For an ALS family fighting a denied wheelchair claim or a Medicare appeal, this is the part of the organization worth your phone call.
Who is eligible
These are the general TotalAssist requirements, for the day a fund opens that fits. Requirements vary by fund, so check the individual fund page too.
- A qualifying diagnosis of a condition covered within TotalAssist, verified by the patient’s medical care team. ALS is not currently one of them.
- Household income at or below 500 percent of the federal poverty level, adjusted by the cost of living index. Some funds set it lower.
- Active insurance coverage that includes coverage for pharmaceutical products. Some funds require government insurance, some accept any coverage.
- Legal residence and treatment in the United States or a US territory.
- An eligible zip code, for the funds labeled health equity funds only.
You can check the income test without applying. TotalAssist publishes its federal poverty level tables, and there is a short eligibility check on the site that asks for household size, income, state and zip code.
How to apply
Do step one before anything else. With no ALS fund open, steps two onward are for a different diagnosis in the household, or for the day this changes.
- Search the funds list by disease or medication name. If nothing matches, do not fill in an application. Set an alert and stop.
- Read that fund’s own page for its income limit, insurance rule and award amount. They are not identical across funds.
- Gather the patient’s details: name, date of birth, address, phone, household size, and Social Security number or alien number.
- Gather income: annual household income, and whether a US tax return has been or will be filed this year.
- Gather insurance: carrier name and phone, policy ID, group number, subscriber details, copay amounts, Medicare Part D status and any secondary coverage.
- Gather medical details: primary diagnosis and date, provider or facility name and contact details, and confirmation that treatment is current or planned.
- Name anyone allowed to speak to the foundation for the patient. For an ALS household, add the caregiver here.
- Apply online, or by phone on 866-512-3861. A pharmacy or provider can also apply on the patient’s behalf.
You are not asked to upload documents with the application. TotalAssist says it contacts the provider to verify the diagnosis and treatment plan, and may ask the patient separately to verify income.
What they do not cover
The exclusions matter more than usual here, because the biggest one is the diagnosis itself.
- ALS, as of July 27, 2026. No fund, and no ALS medications in the index.
- Equipment and home modifications. Wheelchairs, lifts, beds, ramps and speech devices are not on the covered expense list at all.
- Paid caregiving hours, respite and household bills. This is a medical cost program, not a hardship fund.
- Dental, vision and life insurance premiums, stated explicitly as not covered.
- Prescriptions filled with a discount prescription card. You cannot stack the two.
- Medical services such as lab work, radiation therapy, scans and surgery.
- People with no insurance. Coverage that includes pharmaceutical products is a requirement, not a preference.
For ALS drug copays today, the closest equivalent is the HealthWell Foundation, a US nonprofit that runs the same kind of copay program. Its ALS fund was open when we checked on the same day, with a maximum award of $15,000 per 12 month grant period. That fund also closes when money runs out, so check the status line before you apply.
For equipment, care hours and home changes, none of these charities is the answer. Our financial resources page and free medical equipment page cover the programs that do pay for those.
Old phone numbers and old links will send you the wrong way
The merger broke a lot of links. The old PAN disease fund pages now redirect to the general TotalAssist funds list rather than to a matching fund, which can read like a fund exists when it does not.
Older resource lists, including an earlier page on this site, gave 1-866-531-2947 as the PAN Foundation number. On July 27, 2026 we could not find that number published on panfoundation.org, patientadvocate.org or totalassist.org, so we are not repeating it. Use the numbers below, which we did verify that day.
The panfoundation.org address still works, but it now serves education material rather than grant applications.
Contact
- TotalAssist support: 866-512-3861, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Eastern. Press 2 for Spanish. Live chat on the site.
- Case management: 800-532-5274, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm Eastern. Free, and worth the call even with no ALS fund.
- Grants and eligibility: totalassist.org, plus the eligibility requirements and covered expenses articles.
- Alerts: totalassist.org/notify and fundfinder.org.
- Merger details: uniting.patientadvocate.org. Education material stays at panfoundation.org.
- Written contact: Patient Advocate Foundation, 421 Butler Farm Road, Hampton, VA 23666.
Related pages
We are not affiliated with the PAN Foundation, the Patient Advocate Foundation or the HealthWell Foundation. We describe them as resources for ALS families, and we receive nothing if you contact them. This organization is mid-merger, so details change fast. Everything here was read from their own websites on July 27, 2026. Confirm current terms directly. Educational content only, not financial, medical or legal advice.