The federal government should not require hospitals to submit new data on their acquisition costs for prescription drugs they dispense to low-income patients through the section 340B prescription drug discount program, NASH has told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In a formal comment letter in response to new data collection requirements proposed by CMS last month, the National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals wrote on behalf of private safety-net hospitals that

The 340B program was created by Congress to enable hospitals (and other providers) that serve low-income communities to maximize their resources when working to serve those communities. The program helps improve access to high-cost prescription drugs for low-income patients and helps put additional resources into the hands of qualified providers so those providers can do more for their low-income patients: provide more care that their patients might otherwise not be able to afford, offer more services that might otherwise be unavailable to such patients, and do more outreach into communities consisting primarily of low-income residents. This was the purpose of the 340B program when Congress created it in 1992 and Congress has not modified that purpose since that time. NASH believes that through this proposed data collection CMS is seeking to exert authority it does not have to demand of providers information to which the agency is not entitled.

In the letter, NASH also objected that the proposed data collection would be costly and burdensome for hospitals and is premature because the courts are still considering challenges to CMS’s authority to reduce 340B payments to providers; the latter is why CMS seeks this data.

Go here to see NASH’s formal comment letter to CMS.