May 3, 2010 – As most Monitor readers might already know, the new health care reform law made a number of critical access hospitals (CAHs) and many sole community hospitals (SCHs) and rural referral centers (RRCs) eligible for 340B drug discounts. It also potentially expanded 340B to 11 free-standing cancer hospitals.
But not everyone knows what a CAH, SCH, RRC or free-standing cancer hospital actually is—sometimes, not even the institutions that qualify for the designation. In addition, many rural and cancer hospitals are discovering they might not qualify for the program after all.
To shed more light on the matter, Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical Access (SNHPA), the advocacy group for hospitals participating in the 340B program, recently published descriptions of these types of providers along with their 340B qualification requirements.
SNHPA adapted the definitions from fact sheets published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other public sources. Click here to read the rural hospital descriptions and for a list of the 11 cancer hospitals potentially eligible to enroll in 340B.