Faces of 340B

Tristan Greer, 340B Program Coordinator, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center (NFMMC) is just a mile away from the world famous waterfall. Despite the tourist trade, these are challenging times for the city. Twenty-seven percent of the population lives below the poverty line, including 41 percent of children. NFMMC estimates it spends $1.6 million a year on charity care. NFMMC depends on the roughly $500,000 a year it saves on medicine through the 340B drug discount program to sustain its free and reduced-cost care for uninsured and underinsured patients. 340B savings enable NFMMC to offer other services that would otherwise be unavailable in the area, including the only cardiac catheterization lab and dedicated psychiatric emergency room in Niagara County. “340B really means keeping the hospital doors open,” says Tristan Greer, NFMMC’s 340B Program Coordinator. “In order to keep the facility going at a high level, we utilize our 340B savings to serve our community through mental health programs, our cardiac program, and our pediatric OBGYN program. Without the 340B savings for our hospital, we would no longer be able to serve our needy patients.”