STATEMENT ON CMS FINAL RULE FOR REMEDY OF UNLAWFUL 340B MEDICARE CUTS
WASHINGTON, D.C.,— Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule on its remedy for unlawful Medicare 340B cuts. The following is attributed to 340B Health President and CEO Maureen Testoni:
“We appreciate CMS taking action to address its unlawful cuts to Medicare Part B drug payments for 340B hospitals and strongly support the decision to make lump-sum payments within the next few months. We strongly disagree with CMS’s decision to cut future reimbursement to hospitals, including 340B hospitals, to offset these lump-sum repayments. This approach diminishes the remedy’s impact and, as applied to 340B hospitals, results in an estimated 16 years of underpayments for hospitals that provide 77% of Medicaid care and 67% of the nation’s unpaid hospital care for the benefit of low-income and rural communities.
The CMS rule also fails to address hospital concerns that Medicare private plans that followed CMS in imposing their own 340B cuts will not be required to repay hospitals for those reductions. For many hospitals, the majority of their Medicare patients are enrolled in these plans, representing millions in lost revenue over the period in which the unlawful cuts were in place. We urge the agency to reconsider this detrimental approach to correcting the situation.”
Contact: Jon Tilton at jon.tilton@340bhealth.org or 202-536-2285