Summary
The 340B Drug Pricing Program is intended to help safety-net providers “stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services” by requiring drug manufacturers that participate in the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to provide discounts on outpatient drugs purchased by eligible health care organizations. These covered entities (CEs) include federally qualified health centers, critical access hospitals, and other safety-net providers. However, the program has come under increasing scrutiny due to significant growth in both the number of CEs and the volume of drugs purchased, CE use of contract pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers imposing limitations on 340B discounts, and ensuing litigation. States have taken the lead on enacting legislation to address some of these concerns, particularly the use of contract pharmacies, but these trends have also led Congress and the Administration, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to increase their scrutiny of the program to ensure it is operating as intended.
In this Insights for Impact, we present a high-level overview of the perspectives of the stakeholders involved, major recent legislative and regulatory updates, and what the potential next steps may be.
Read more about the state of play here.
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