November 1, 2016—Thanks to the money its saves from being in the 340B drug discount program, a Virginia hospital could afford to perform heart surgery on an unemployed, uninsured man, put him on a blood thinner, and then keep close tabs on his health post-discharge – all for free. A Boston 340B hospital likewise can afford to keep first responders supplied with opioid overdose antidotes, whose prices are sky high and rising. A 340B hospital in Cleveland can subsidize free and low-cost oncology, diabetes, and asthma care, among other good works.
“So why is the pharmaceutical industry working to gut a federal program that helps make medicines and hospital services affordable to the most vulnerable among us?” asks Ted Slafsky, the president and CEO of 340B Health, the group representing 340B hospitals and health systems, in an op-ed today in the health and medicine news site STAT.
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