Earlier this year, six members of the Senate circulated a draft of potential changes in the 340B Drug Pricing Program through their Supporting Underserved and Strengthening Transparency, Accountability, and Integrity Now and for the Future of (SUSTAIN) 340B Act. The 340B program has long been a vital tool for helping community safety-net hospitals serve their low-income communities. The bipartisan group of senators invited stakeholders to submit comments on their draft legislation and about the 340B program in general.
The Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals responded to this opportunity with a letter that addresses five aspects of the proposed bill:
- How the 340B program defines “patient.”
- How the program treats so-called child sites.
- The use of contract pharmacies to provide outpatient prescription drugs to eligible patients.
- Transparency and reporting requirements, including how the program might attempt to define and require reporting on hospital uncompensated care and charity care.
- The employment status of physicians who participate in the care of hospitals’ 340B patients.
In general, ASH encourages the senators to preserve the key aspects of the program – how they define patients, their continued efforts to establish new venues for serving those and other patients in the community, and the effectiveness with which participating providers ensure that 340B-covered prescription drugs get into the hands of eligible patients.
Learn more about how community safety-net hospitals view the draft legislation and the 340B program in general from this letter from ASH to the bill’s sponsors.
