February 27, 2019-- Patients often need help with their medications, and there is no better person to provide this assistance than a pharmacy expert who can offer one-on-one education. That’s why Baystate Health, a four-hospital health system in Western Massachusetts, embeds discharge liaisons in its academic medical center as well as pharmacists in its inner-city clinics. … [Read more...]
340B Advocates Meet in San Diego
February 5, 2019— Hundreds of pharmacists, 340B program directors, and other patient advocates convened in San Diego last week for the 15th Annual 340B Coalition Winter Conference, the largest such gathering to date. The event gave safety-net hospitals, community health centers, Ryan White clinics, and other safety-net providers a chance to discuss the latest developments in … [Read more...]
340B Hospitals Serve a Vital Role in Combatting Opioid Epidemic
January 23, 2019– Since 1999, more than 700,000 Americans have lost their lives to a drug overdose, and care for people affected by this epidemic has added an estimated $1 trillion to the U.S. healthcare bill. According to the CDC, in 2017 more than 70,000 opioid-related deaths were the main contributor to a decline in U.S. life expectancy. Confronting the nation’s opioid … [Read more...]
Federal Court Blocks Medicare 340B Cuts
December 28, 2018— A federal court has found the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) exceeded its authority by making deep cuts to Medicare Part B drug payments to many 340B hospitals. The decision marks a major victory for hospitals and their patients. Ruling on Dec. 27, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a permanent injunction against … [Read more...]
An Extraordinary Year of Focus for 340B
As 2018 comes to a close, we can look back on 12 months of notable focus on the 340B drug pricing program. With four congressional hearings and more than a dozen pieces of legislation on Capitol Hill, and several regulatory efforts by the Trump administration, 340B was under a magnifying glass. Not all of this activity was constructive. Some efforts would have done … [Read more...]
Faces of 340B: Helping Patients Back on Their Feet
December 7, 2018— Getting healthy can be a particularly difficult thing for uninsured people to do, especially if they need prescription drugs that they can’t afford on their own. San Ysidro Health, a nonprofit organization in San Diego, aims to address this problem through a program that uses 340B savings to get patients integrated back into the health care system. … [Read more...]
Hits & Misses: 340B Commentary Gets Some Things Right But Misses on Others
November 28, 2018— In a recent commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), authors Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rachel Sachs of Washington University in St. Louis call for an alternative financial mechanism for the 340B program, claiming the 340B program has resulted in market distortions and shifts in physician … [Read more...]