Patient Financial Assistance Program

NMDP grants to help patients get to and through cell therapy

Financial concerns shouldn't keep your patients from accessing their potentially life-saving cell therapy—or thriving after treatment. Thanks to our financial supporters, NMDP^SM offers financial assistance grants to support your patients and their families.

Your patients can receive financial assistance from NMDP for things like:

Unexpected financial barriers, like unemployment or extended hospital stay expenses
Out-of-pocket costs related to medical care, such as copays for prescriptions, clinic visits and dental work
Non-medical out-of-pocket expenses for patients and caregivers, like temporary housing, food and gas
Medical costs associated with chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) management
Travel costs related to clinical trials

Patient eligibility status is determined when you apply for assistance on your patient's behalf.

Apply for patient financial assistance

Thank you so much for approving us for the Patient Financial Assistance grant! The funds have taken away from the stress we are feeling as we are supporting our son. Please know how helpful your support has been for our family.

–Sarah, transplant Caregiver

How to apply for patient financial assistance

A transplant center staff member must submit an application through our secure, online grant platform, Good Grants. Our team only uses the data in the application internally and never shares it.

Get set up with Good Grants

If you already have an NMDP Okta account and need access to Good Grants, contact the NMDP Service Desk for support at 1 (763) 406-3411 or 1 (800) 526-7809, ext. 3411 (available 24/7).

If you are a social worker at a Network transplant center and new to NMDP's systems, contact your center's primary transplant coordinator for NMDP. They will request access on your behalf. Once the form is submitted, you or your coordinator can get your login and password from the NMDP Service Desk within 24 to 48 hours.

Need help identifying your center's primary coordinator? Contact membership@nmdp.org.

If you are not a Network transplant center staff member, contact patientgrants@nmdp.org for application access.

Primary patient grants available from NMDP

Your patient is eligible for financial assistance from NMDP if they are 1) actively being treated for their disease at the time of application, 2) have a household income less than 350% of the federal poverty level and 3) meet any additional criteria outlined below.*

Pre-transplant grant

The pre-transplant grant helps patients with out-of-pocket costs before an NMDP-facilitated transplant. To qualify a patient must:

Have a Formal search of the NMDP Registry^SM with the intention to have an NMDP-facilitated transplant

Post-transplant grant

The post-transplant grant helps patients with out-of-pocket costs after an NMDP-facilitated transplant. To qualify a patient must:

Have received an NMDP-facilitated transplant within the last three years

GVHD grant

The GVHD grant helps patients with out-of-pocket GVHD treatment costs after an NMDP-facilitated transplant. To qualify a patient must:

Be at least 90 days post NMDP-facilitated transplant
Be receiving active GVHD treatment

Clinical trial travel grant

The clinical trial travel grant helps patients with out-of-pocket travel costs to participate in an interventional clinical trial. To qualify a patient must:

Be enrolled or enrolling in a United States-based interventional clinical trial to treat a blood cancer or blood disorder
Have travel costs to participate in the clinical trial

Apply for an NMDP grant

Crisis grants

The crisis grants can provide up to $10,000 for a patient. A transplant center staff member—preferably the patient's social worker—must submit the application. A patient must meet all the requirements below to be eligible for a crisis grant.*

Pre-transplant: Make Me Stronger Crisis Grant

Must have a donor (related or unrelated) identified and ready for collection to be facilitated by NMDP
Patient is experiencing an unexpected or extenuating circumstance presenting an unaffordable expense, negatively impacting access to transplant
Patient residing and receiving care in the United States
Household size and income do not exceed 350% of the Federal Poverty Level
Income and available assets do not exceed monthly costs, including costs needed to cover the crisis

Post-transplant: Ira & Diana Riklis Crisis Grant

Must have had an NMDP-facilitated transplant within the past 24 months
Patient is experiencing an unexpected or extenuating circumstance presenting an unaffordable expense, negatively impacting their physical recovery post-transplant
Patient residing and receiving care in the United States
Household size and income do not exceed 350% of the federal poverty level
Income and available assets do not exceed monthly costs, including costs needed to cover the crisis

Sickle Cell Disease Fertility Preservation Grant

The Sickle Cell Disease Fertility Preservation Grant provides a limited number of qualified patients up to $10,000 towards preserving fertility prior to transplant. This grant can cover expenses including, but not limited to, oocyte retrieval/embryo culture/cryopreservation, semen analysis/freezing, storage fees and medications.

To be eligible for the Sickle Cell Disease Fertility Preservation Grant, all the following must be true:*

Patient is pre-transplant and has a diagnosis of sickle cell disease
Transplant team has identified a donor or cord for collection
Fertility clinic consultation in process or completed
Household size and income do not exceed 350% of the Federal Poverty Level
Application is submitted before preservation begins

Help your patients get answers to financial questions

NMDP patient navigators can help your patients and their caregivers get answers to financial and insurance questions, cope with uncertainty and connect them with others who understand the transplant process.

Get in touch with our Patient Navigator team at patientinfo@nmdp.org or call 1 (888) 999-6743.

You can also browse our Materials Catalog for free financial resources for your patients.

Additional financial resources for patients

It’s difficult for many patients to keep paying their mortgage, utilities or credit card debts when there are so many new bills to pay after transplant.

If it’s hard for your patients to keep up with all their bills, suggest they:

Call their creditors
Explain their situation
Ask about getting lower, more manageable monthly payments

Many will understand and work with a patient.

If your patients need help talking to creditors about lowering their payments, suggest they call a nonprofit consumer credit counseling service. These organizations can help patients set a budget. They can also work with creditors to come up with a payment plan. Call 1 (800) 388-2227 or visit the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Questions about patient financial assistance from NMDP?

Email our Patient Financial Assistance team at patientgrants@nmdp.org or call (763) 406-8114.

Four members of the NMDP Patient Financial Assistance team looking at the camera and smiling.

Our NMDP Patient Financial Assistance team members—(left to right) Mai Lee, Kelsey, Blair and Jackie—are ready to support your patients.

*Availability of patient financial assistance depends on funding and is not guaranteed, regardless of eligibility.