As it stands, the ongoing abuse of 340B and Medicaid discounts is enriching huge hospital conglomerates at the expense of patients, employers, state governments, poor communities, and taxpayers.
Pharmaceutical leader Johnson & Johnson recently unleashed a firestorm in Washington after it proposed a change to how it offers discounted prices on two drugs in a little-known, but enormous, federal program that’s hurting the low-income patients it was created to help.
That program, known as the “340B Drug Pricing Program,” allows certain hospitals—and their affiliated clinics and pharmacies—to access medicines at significantly lower prices offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
To help ensure that 340B discounts are being obtained lawfully and benefit the low-income patients they’re intended for, J&J proposed offering such discounts as retroactive rebates—rather than upfront discounts—for a subset of 340B hospitals on two of its medicines. This change was intended to help bring much-needed transparency to the 340B program.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
How The Hospital Industrial Complex Robs Poor Patients
Sally C. Pipes
As it stands, the ongoing abuse of 340B and Medicaid discounts is enriching huge hospital conglomerates at the expense of patients, employers, state governments, poor communities, and taxpayers.
Pharmaceutical leader Johnson & Johnson recently unleashed a firestorm in Washington after it proposed a change to how it offers discounted prices on two drugs in a little-known, but enormous, federal program that’s hurting the low-income patients it was created to help.
That program, known as the “340B Drug Pricing Program,” allows certain hospitals—and their affiliated clinics and pharmacies—to access medicines at significantly lower prices offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
To help ensure that 340B discounts are being obtained lawfully and benefit the low-income patients they’re intended for, J&J proposed offering such discounts as retroactive rebates—rather than upfront discounts—for a subset of 340B hospitals on two of its medicines. This change was intended to help bring much-needed transparency to the 340B program.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.