Rural America Needs 340B

by Admin | March 24, 2014 4:30 pm

If Big Pharma persuades Congress to limit or end the 340B program, “hardworking Americans in the heartland of the country will lose as hospitals cut back on prescription discounts, treatment and services,” the head of the National Rural Health Association argues today in a commentary in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call[1].

“Many of our hospitals and clinics would have to close altogether,” warns NRHA President Raymond G. Christensen, M.D. “That would be a travesty we can’t let happen.”

“Rural hospitals are the front line of care for millions of Americans who can’t travel to big cities for medical treatment,” Dr. Christensen writes. “Most are small, less than 25 beds, and many struggle to keep their doors open in the face of rising costs. A little-known prescription drug program called 340B helps these providers stay in business — and extend vital services to needy patients.”

Dr. Christensen cites these examples of “the positive impact of the program is tangible in small towns and rural communities” across America:

• In Centerville, Tenn., St. Thomas Hickman Hospital reaches out to patients without cars, picks them up from home and brings them in for lunch and medical treatment. The hospital also provides free medications on a regular basis to outpatients who can’t afford them.
• Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, Iowa, provides qualified outpatients a full year of medications for free. And it gives its emergency room doctors vouchers to supply medicines at no cost to patients, based on need.
• At Regional Health System in the Black Hills of South Dakota, 340B savings fund patient treatment in a local detoxification clinic and a short-term crisis center.

“The benefits of 340B flow far beyond the needy patients treated at America’s rural hospitals,” he says. “Because savings are often passed on in low-cost or free prescriptions, people take their medications and return less often to the hospital emergency room. That translates into lower costs for Medicare and Medicaid — saving a bundle of taxpayer dollars.”

Source URL: https://340binformed.org/2014/03/rural-america-needs-340b/

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