Pharmaceutical manufacturer contractor Kalderos has replaced Review, its 340B drug claims verification tool, with a new one named Discount Hub.
Chicago-based Kalderos announced the change in an Aug. 31 blog post and an Oct. 12 news release. It said Discount Hub gives providers “a simplified process to review their 340B claims” and “more direct communication with Kalderos’ support teams.”
Kalderos offers a service to help manufacturers identify claims on which a company has paid a duplicate discount—a 340B discount and a Medicaid rebate on the same claim. Federal law says it is providers’ responsibility to prevent duplication in Medicaid fee for service. Manufacturers upload claims suspected of being duplicate discounts to Kalderos. Providers sign in to Kalderos and answer whether a 340B drug was dispensed for a given claim.
A Kalderos spokesperson said providers do not need to do anything to shift from using Review to using Discount Hub to review claims.
“There is no additional work for the covered entities,” Kalderos Chief Marketing Officer Rhiannon Naslund said. “We wanted to ensure this was a seamless transition that enhanced the covered entity user experience. All covered entities will automatically be redirected from the previous URL to the new one and all login credentials remain unchanged.” Naslund said Kalderos told entities about the switch by email.
In 2020, Kalderos announced a service named 340B Pay to let manufacturers provide 340B pricing as a post-purchase rebate instead of as an up-front discount. No drug company is known to have contracted with Kalderos to use the service. 340B provider groups say this method of providing 340B pricing is illegal and oppose it.
Naslund said “340B Pay is still part of our Kalderos offering. We continue to proactively gain insight on how we innovate this offering to best meet the needs of all of our platform stakeholders which is largely inclusive of covered entity input.”
Kalderos last year sued the federal government over its position that that manufacturers may not unilaterally impose conditions on 340B drug purchases.
“In light of HRSA’s new blanket policy forbidding manufacturer conditions, Kalderos has largely been unable to move forward with its [340B Pay] model, with multiple manufacturers stating that they would contract with Kalderos for services, but cannot in light of defendants’ policy position,” the company said in its complaint.
The case has been stayed pending a federal appeals court’s ruling in drug manufacturers Novartis and United Therapeutics’ (UT) 340B contract pharmacy suits. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., is hearing arguments in those cases on Monday.
