340B HEALTH RESPONDS TO CMS PROPOSALS TO ACCELERATE PAY REDUCTIONS TO 340B HOSPITALS AND PURSUE NEW CUTS
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Medicare outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) proposed rule for calendar year 2026. CMS proposes setting steeper cuts for non-drug items and services starting next year as part of its recoupment strategy for funding that the agency redistributed during its unlawful 340B drug payment cuts from 2018-2022. CMS also proposes conducting a hospital drug cost acquisition survey early next year that it could use to impose new pay cuts for 340B hospitals starting as early as 2027.
The following statement is attributed to 340B Health President and CEO Maureen Testoni:
“340B Health has major concerns with these proposals, which would cause substantial financial harm to 340B hospitals and impede their ability to care for patients in need. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided CMS broke the law when it cut payments to 340B hospitals starting in 2018. Then the agency finalized its planned recoupment strategy when remedying those cuts despite federal law not requiring that it do so. Now CMS wants to accelerate that unnecessary and flawed policy by compressing cuts that were being spread out over 16 years into as few as three to six years.”
“CMS also intends to pursue new 340B payment cuts by launching a hospital drug cost acquisition survey next year and using the data to inform the payment rates it will set starting in 2027. Such an approach could result in hospitals potentially losing the entire benefit of 340B pricing when they prescribe those drugs to Medicare patients. This would be a devastating hit to the already scarce resources that hospitals rely on to care for patients living with low incomes and those in rural areas.”
“We and the 340B hospitals we represent will be submitting comments on these proposals that urge the agency to abandon its harmful plans for pay cuts.”
Contact: Jon Tilton at jon.tilton@340bhealth.org or 202-536-2285