Faces of 340B

RORY PHILLIPS, DIRECTOR OF PHARMACY AND RESPIRATORY CARE, SOUTHERN OHIO MEDICAL CENTER, OH

Few places demonstrate the importance of the 340B drug pricing program more starkly than a safety-net hospital whose 340B savings are greater than their operational bottom line. This is the case at Southern Ohio Medical Center, a sole community hospital serving the residents in and around Portsmouth, Ohio. Without the savings that they derive from 340B, they would not be able to afford to offer the breadth of care that they do in a community where they often are the only provider of certain services. Rory Phillips, the director of pharmacy and respiratory care at the center, notes his organization uses 340B savings to fund such services as rural health clinics, a free medication program for low-income patients, and psychiatric care. Without 340B, some of those services no longer would be sustainable for the hospital.