Legislation in Indiana that would have required hospitals to file annual reports disclosing their median reimbursement for 340B-priced drugs, along with numerous other financial disclosures, has failed to advance and has no chance of passage this year.
The wide-ranging hospital transparency bill, which was sponsored by long-time State Rep. Martin Carbaugh (R), was introduced on Jan. 11 and sent to the House Committee on Insurance for further action. However, “HB 1291 did not receive a hearing and therefore is not moving forward” said Laura McCaffrey, vice president of public affairs and communications with the Indiana Hospital Association.
It is one of at least three state bills this year to require hospitals to report what they take in from the 340B program and where it goes. A Virginia bill died in committee last month. A bill in Connecticut, written by the state’s governor, was introduced on Feb. 9.
Unlike the Indiana and Virginia bills, the Connecticut governor’s bill would also require drug manufacturers to restore 340B pricing in the contract pharmacy setting and prohibit alleged discriminatory practices by PBMs against 340B providers.
The Indiana bill would have required hospitals to provide “a statement of the total median reimbursement received by the hospital” for 340B-designated drugs “expressed as a ratio of the median costs paid for those drugs in the aggregate.” These drug products would also have included pharmaceuticals purchased in hospital-based specialty pharmacies.
Hospitals also would have been required to file:
- Balance sheet, including total assets and liabilities
- Income statement
- Medicare and Medicaid gross revenue
- Other revenue from state and local government programs
- Federal COVID-19 relief funding
- Medical loss ratio
- Net patient revenue
- Gross inpatient and outpatient revenue
- Charitable contributions and other third-party payments
An independent certified public accountant or the state board of accounts would have had to certify the information. Hospitals would have had to file their reports with the Indiana Department of Health and with a state payer claims database within 120 days after the end of the hospital’s fiscal year.
