If Congress changes hands during next year’s mid-term elections, we can expect the 340B program to be back under the spotlight with a renewed effort to place significant restrictions on the program, 340B Report Publisher and CEO Ted Slafsky writes in his latest column for Omnicell.
Slafsky believes if one or both chambers flip, the 340B program will “get a very close look” by lawmakers. He notes that Republican members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee recently tried but failed to introduce a host of amendments considered extremely burdensome by 340B providers to the Democrats’ drug pricing bill. The bill is part of the huge budget reconciliation package currently being debated in the House.
Other Republican-sponsored House and Senate bills in recent weeks address 340B hospital eligibility, 340B health center pricing on insulin and EpiPen-like devices, and the scope of federal 340B audits of covered entities.
Slafsky expects more bills to be introduced by both sides in the 340B debate in the coming months. But he says it will be hard for anything to pass unless the contract pharmacy standoff persists, and entities conclude they must try to restore 340B pricing in the contract pharmacy setting before the November 2022 elections.
You can read the complete column here.
