April 20, 2012—Senate Finance Committee Ranking Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah this week began circulating draft drug shortage legislation that would, among other provisions, exempt manufacturers of many sterile injectable drugs from paying Medicaid rebates and 340B discounts on the products for seven years. The exemptions would apply to single- and multiple-source sterile … [Read more...]
OPA Sets Provisional Dates for Start of 340B Hospital Recertification
Emails are slated to be sent on April 20, April 27, and May 4April 11, 2012—The Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) has refined its timetable for sending hospital senior executives emails containing the username, password, and instructions they will need to recertify that their institution and all of its registered outpatient sites are eligible for the 340B drug discount program. Authorizing officials at 340B free-standing cancer … [Read more...]
How Would 340B Fare if Health Care Reform Is Struck Down?
A Drug Discount Monitor news analysisApril 6, 2012—The critical access hospital in Warm Springs, Ga., President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's rural retreat, just became eligible for 340B drug discounts on April 1. But before July arrives, the 25-bed facility in Meriwether County—where nearly one in five lives below the poverty line—could possibly find itself out of the federal program, along with nearly 800 other … [Read more...]
FTC Allows Express Scripts to Purchase Medco Health Solutions
Dissenting commissioner calls the PBM merger a "game changer"April 4, 2012—The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of the proposed acquisition of pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) Medco Health Solutions by Express Scripts, clearing the way for the merger of two of the nation's largest PBMs. The April 2 vote to end the investigation was 3 to 1, with Commissioner Julie Brill dissenting. … [Read more...]
Lilly Limits Zyprexa Sales as 340B Price Falls to a Penny
Allocation system is the first since OPA issued policy clarification in NovemberApril 4, 2012—Drug manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co. is limiting sales of its widely used atypical antipsychotic Zyprexa (olanzapine) in light of the drug's 340B ceiling price falling to $0.01 under the Office of Pharmacy Affairs' (OPA) "penny pricing" policy. The company notified OPA that it was instituting the purchasing limits in a March 28 letter that OPA posted on its home … [Read more...]
340B Hospital Recertification Set for 3rd Week of April & 1st Week of May
Revised dates and other new details emerge in second OPA webinarMarch 30, 2012—The Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) now plans to begin recertifying the 340B eligibility of children's and free-standing cancer hospitals, rural referral centers (RRCs), and sole community hospitals (SCHs) during the third week of April, followed by disproportionate share (DSH) and critical access hospitals (CAHs) during the first week of May, the OPA official … [Read more...]
HRSA Seeks Input on 340B Paperwork Burdens
Agency estimates lengths of time it should take to enroll, recertify, and make changesMarch 29, 2012—The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is inviting public comment on how much time it takes for hospitals, health centers, and other providers to initially enroll in 340B and then later to recertify their eligibility. HRSA issued the request for comments in the March 19 Federal Register. … [Read more...]