June 29, 2018—Healthcare providers in the 340B drug pricing program pass their savings along to low-income, underinsured patients through drug discounts at their in-house pharmacies or those they contract with, reduced fees at contract pharmacies, or in the form of charity care including free or discounted prescriptions, a new federal report has found. The June 28 Government … [Read more...]
Survey Says: All 340B Hospitals Use Program Savings to Care for Low-Income, Rural Patients
June 25, 2018—Rapid City Hospital in Rapid City, S.D., depends on money it saves through the 340B drug discount program to keep its neonatal intensive care unit open. In Chicago, Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center recently was able to help an uninsured patient cover the $20,000 cost of drug treatment for a parasite, thanks to its 340B savings. Because of 340B, Johnson County … [Read more...]
Faces of 340B: Help in Times of Crisis
June 21, 2018 – Two recent incidents perfectly illustrated to Hossam Gamal how the 340B program comes through in times of crisis – both for individuals and communities as a whole. When California’s Central Coast became one of the many regions in the nation to suffer a flu epidemic, Lompoc Valley Medical Center – where Gamal is the director of pharmacy services – was able to … [Read more...]
New Legislation Would Strengthen 340B Program, Demand Transparency, Accountability for Drug Makers
June 13, 2018—Newly introduced legislation would demand accountability and transparency from drug manufacturers participating in the 340B drug pricing program. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), is the most significant pro-340B proposal in nearly a decade. Under the Matsui bill, known as the Stretching Entity Resources for Vulnerable Communities (SERV … [Read more...]
Faces of 340B: A Story About Family
June 11, 2018 – For Sandy Clark, the 340B program is personal. She was inspired to become a 340B coordinator due to the experience of one special patient in particular – her own son. Sandy’s son was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2005, just a month before graduating from high school. At the time, Meadville Medical Center in northwestern Pennsylvania did not have the … [Read more...]
Faces of 340B: “We Stand in that Gap”
May 24, 2018 – For Chuck Beams, it was one patient in particular who made him realize just how crucial the 340B program is to uninsured and underinsured patients with serious medical conditions. The patient from Auburn, Ala., required tens of thousands of dollars in infusions and other costly care for his cancer and had no idea how he was going to obtain the treatments until he … [Read more...]
340B Hospitals Provide Higher Levels of Uncompensated Care, New Study Confirms
May 23, 2018—A new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine finds that 340B hospitals have a higher uncompensated care burden than non-340B hospitals and operate at lower margins. This new study echoes the findings of a recent report by L&M Policy Research, which found 340B hospitals provide 60 percent of all uncompensated … [Read more...]