When Congress creates a discount program to help low-income patients pay for medicine, it should be obvious that the patient is the intended recipient of the savings. This was the purpose of the 340B Drug Discount Program.
Yet savings meant for patients most in need of assistance too often become a revenue stream for well-funded hospital systems, while some hospitals in low-income urban and rural communities are left out of the program entirely. The 340B program should be preserved for true safety-net care. However, Congress must retarget the program away from wealthy hospitals and toward communities and patients most in need.
The 340B program was created to help safety-net providers stretch limited resources and serve low-income and uninsured patients. It requires drug manufacturers to sell pharmaceuticals to eligible covered entities at discounts as high as 50 percent. The original logic was straightforward: if government requires manufacturers to discount medicine for safety-net providers, those discounts will reduce the cost of medicine for vulnerable patients.
Justin Leventhal is a Senior Policy Analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization that advocates for consumers through evidence-based analysis and data. Follow Justin on X @JustinLeventhal