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The Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B (AIR340B) applauds House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) for continuing their probe into the 340B drug discount program. Last Friday, the committee leaders sent letters to a variety of covered entities participating in the 340B drug discount program, inquiring about how these institutions calculate program savings and use them to help serve patients in their communities. AIR340B issued the statement linked here.

In recent weeks, the 340B program has resurfaced as a topic of interest for policymakers and patient advocates alike. As the Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B (AIR340B Coalition), we are encouraged that much of this interest is geared toward ensuring the sustainability of the program for the future and strengthening it to make sure it serves vulnerable or uninsured patients. However despite this recent increased interest in the program, it is still relatively unknown.

In the opinion piece “Mississippi hospitals at risk, but Washington can help,” (8/6/17), former Rep. Ronnie Shows rightly points to the need to protect rural health care access, but wrongly assumes the 340B drug discount program is the answer.

Federal health officials say a controversial program that allows hospitals to purchase drugs at deep discounts needs some fixing.

The House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing last Tuesday to examine the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) oversight of the 340B drug pricing program.

The Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B (AIR340B) announced the addition of four new members to the coalition: Citizens Against Government Waste (GAGW), Genentech, Medical Oncology Association of Southern California Inc. (MOASC), and the National Medical Association (NMA). These organizations join the diverse group of health care stakeholders that have come together to advance reforms that strengthen and sustain 340B.

A decade after the nation’s top hospitals used all their advertising and lobbying clout to keep their tax-exempt status, pointing to their vast givebacks to their communities, they have seen their revenue soar while cutting back on the very givebacks they were touting, according to a POLITICO analysis.

Even as health reform dominates much of the media landscape and the policy arena in Washington, there are many health policies and programs that have a large impact on the U.S. health system that are not getting the attention they deserve.