Could ending the fights over limits on 340B contract pharmacy and encroachment on providers’ 340B savings hinge on hospitals accepting 340B reporting requirements? 340B Report Publisher and CEO Ted Slafsky raises that provocative question in his monthly column for Verity Solutions.
For decades, 340B hospital and grantee entities could count on federal and state lawmakers to protect them from harm and act in their interests, Slafsky says in his Feb. 24 column. Today, 340B hospitals are the subjects of unflattering front-page investigative reports in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Bills to impose reporting mandates on 340B hospitals have been introduced in Virginia, Indiana, and Connecticut. Even U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the new chairman of the committee that has jurisdiction over 340B, has expressed concerns.
While the Connecticut bill would require 340B hospital reporting, it also would lift drug company limits on 340B contract pharmacy and stop PBMs from targeting 340B providers and their contract pharmacies for lower reimbursement, Slafsky observes.
Are these “the makings of a grand bargain on 340B?” he wonders. Read the whole column here.
