340B HEALTH RESPONDS TO SENATE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON 340B
WASHINGTON, D.C.— 340B Health has sent a detailed response to a bipartisan group of six U.S. senators who issued a request for information (RFI) about a range of 340B policy issues. The RFI went out from the offices of Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and John Thune (R-S.D.). The request makes clear that the senators are concerned about drugmaker restrictions on 340B pricing for drugs dispensed through community and specialty pharmacies. These senators have long been supporters of both 340B and 340B hospitals.
The following statement is attributed to Maureen Testoni, president and CEO of 340B Health:
“340B Health appreciates this opportunity to engage with Congress on ways to protect the health care safety net and ensure continued access to life-saving medicines and services.”
“340B hospitals deliver 77% of Medicaid hospital care and 67% of the nation's uncompensated and unreimbursed care. They use 340B savings to provide specialized services that patients would otherwise struggle to afford and extend care to rural communities that would otherwise lack access, all without relying on taxpayer funding.”
“Unfortunately, the actions of more than 20 drug manufacturers are undermining the integrity of 340B by limiting access to life-saving medications through 340B hospital pharmacy partners. Any effort to strengthen 340B must reinstate hospitals’ ability to engage with multiple pharmacies to serve their patients and must not undermine other aspects of 340B that are working as intended.”
“We look forward to working with these leaders on policies designed to safeguard access to discounted prescription drugs and crucial health services for the benefit of patients and communities in need.”
In our response, 340B Health asks Congress to enact measures to safeguard and strengthen 340B and to avoid making changes that could undermine 340B. Our comments call on lawmakers to:
- Pass legislation to protect 340B hospitals from drug companies’ harmful 340B restrictions and conditions, restore the 340B benefit for drugs dispensed through contract pharmacies, prohibit drug companies from imposing conditions that restrict 340B, and allow covered entities the ability to directly challenge unlawful drug company 340B restrictions or conditions in federal court
- Oppose additional burdensome and unworkable 340B hospital reporting requirements, and if considering such requirements, reject proposals that require reporting at the outpatient department level and that narrowly focus on uncompensated or charity care
- Pass legislation that prohibits 340B-specific discriminatory policies by payers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), prohibits payers from denying reimbursement for drugs that hospitals administer or dispense directly to their patients, and eliminates “white bagging” and “brown bagging”
- Include protections against narrowing the scope of 340B during any consideration of granting the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) additional regulatory authority over covered entities
- Encourage HRSA to exercise greater 340B oversight over drug companies and wholesalers using existing statutory authority, including through more frequent audits and by fully operationalizing the 340B administrative dispute resolution (ADR) process
- Direct the administration to implement added measures to prevent Medicaid duplicate discounts based on the successful model implemented in Oregon
- Update policies to increase the transparency and accuracy of the HRSA website, including through common-sense reforms to hospital outpatient clinic registration policies
- Eliminate statutory provisions that increase drug costs for safety-net providers such as the orphan drug loophole and group purchasing organization (GPO) prohibition
- Prohibit states from mandating that providers use or not use 340B for Medicaid patients, which imposes additional costs on covered entities while depriving covered entities of the benefit of the 340B discount
Contact: Jon Tilton at jon.tilton@340bhealth.org or 202-536-2285