Newsroom

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.

At Grady Memorial Hospital, where Atlanta’s poor and uninsured are welcomed, the pharmacy charges most patients $5 or less for outpatient medications that treat everything from diabetes to cancer.

To say the American healthcare system is complex is certainly an understatement. When even one healthcare program is not working, it affects us all. Seniors and lawmakers understand the importance of Medicare and work tirelessly to defend it, but we must also work to ensure that waste, fraud, and abuse have no place in the broader healthcare market. The 340B program is a prime example of a program that is being abused to the detriment of America’s seniors. And while the intentions of the program are good, the need for substantial reform is clear.