Faces of 340B

Joey Mattingly, PharmD, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Md.

Quantifying the 340B program’s value on the services safety-net hospitals can provide is critical for demonstrating 340B is operating as Congress intended. Joey Mattingly, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, has researched how the University of Maryland Medical Center uses 340B to improve the services the pharmacy department provides. Studying the hospital’s drug pricing, Joey has found that 340B enables the hospital’s pharmacy department to hire more staff and provide better services to patients. For example, Joey found that the University of Maryland Medical Center uses 340B savings to employ pharmacy technicians that go to patient hospital rooms and deliver medications directly to patients before they are discharged. This helps ensure patients can head home with immediate access to the medications they need to stay healthy and guidance on how to take them properly. Joey explains his research demonstrates how 340B discounts help safety-net hospitals stretch their limited resources to expand patient care. With the hard data in hand, he concludes that cuts to 340B would force hospitals to scale back or close services.