“The 340B contract pharmacy program has seemingly fractured into 17 programs, one governed by the federal government and 16 others with their own standards determined by pharmaceutical manufacturers,” 340B Publisher and CEO Ted Slafsky observes in his latest column for Omnicell.
The manufacturers have vented their frustrations about 340B program growth by restricting 340B discounts in the retail and specialty pharmacy setting, Slafsky says. For safety-net healthcare providers, “it means more paperwork, more time figuring out how to help patients access affordable medications, more worries about compliance and less time focusing on patient care,” he says.
“Meanwhile, it becomes harder and harder for the government to police a program where the private sector makes the rules,” Slafsky says.
With appeals court decisions about the manufacturers’ policies months or possibly years away, Congress needs to intervene now, he says.
You can read Slafsky’s complete column here.
