The second of four opportunities this year for covered entities to register themselves, their sites, and their contract pharmacies in the 340B program starts this Thursday, April 1 and ends on Thursday, April 15. New registrants can begin buying discounted drugs under 340B on July 1.
The next quarterly 340B registration period will be July 1-15, for an Oct. 1 start date. The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) lets eligible hospitals, health centers, Ryan White HIV/AIDS program grantees, and specialized clinics register to participate in 340B during four, 15-day windows per year.
When the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) declares a public health emergency, HRSA lets eligible entities in affected states enroll immediately. Entities in Texas, for example, have been able to enroll since mid-February because HHS declared an emergency in the wake of a Feb. 13-17 winter storm that caused mass power outages and water and food shortages.
In April 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, HRSA began letting some entities enroll in 340B immediately, upon request. In June 2020, HRSA said on its 340B program COVID-19 resources page that, even if a hospital is unable to register an outpatient facility because it is not yet on the hospital’s most recently filed Medicare Cost Report, the facility’s patients might be 340B eligible to the extent that they are patients of the covered entity. HRSA later said that this program flexibility for hospitals was not just for the duration of the pandemic, but permanent.
