340B Health

🌍 Beyond Medicine: 340B’s Reach 340B savings fund programs at Mercy that improve health outcomes for underserved patients. ✔️ A Virtual Medication Substance Use Recovery Program reduced ED visits by 66% and lowered mortality rates, thanks to new case managers, a psychiatrist, and a nurse practitioner. ✔️ Mercy invested $2.1M in 340B savings to offset costly outpatient drug therapies, saving uninsured patients $189.7M in 2023. ✔️ Women’s & Maternal Health: Social workers & community health professionals support patients through pregnancy, delivery, postpartum care, and beyond. ✔️ Primary Care Access: The North City Clinic and mobile units—including a mammography van—bring essential services to disadvantaged, rural, and inner-city patients. This is the power of 340B: access, equity, and healthier communities. #340B #Protect340B

The 340B drug pricing program, created by Congress in 1992, requires drug manufacturers to provide steep discounts to eligible safety-net hospitals, health centers, and clinics. These providers serve large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients. Here’s what that means in practice: 🏥 Hospitals and clinics buy prescription drugs at a discount (often 20–50% or more). 🏥 They reinvest those savings into patient care — offering vital but unprofitable services, covering free or reduced-cost medications, arranging transportation to appointments, sponsoring community health programs, and keeping facilities open in rural and underserved areas. 🏥Patients don’t see the discount at the pharmacy counter directly, but they benefit when their local hospital can stretch limited resources further to serve their health needs. For many providers, 340B is the difference between staying open or closing their doors. Supporters see it as a lifeline for communities. Without it, the most vulnerable patients — rural residents, low-income families, the uninsured — risk losing access to essential care. The bottom line: 340B strengthens the health care safety net by helping hospitals and clinics do much more with less. 💙 Protecting 340B means protecting care for patients who might otherwise fall through the cracks. #Protect340B #HealthEquity #PatientCare

💊 What is the truth about the 340B program? There’s a lot of misinformation out there, so let’s set the record straight: 🔹 Myth: 340B is taxpayer-funded. ✅ Fact: 340B expands care without taxpayer dollars. Drug manufacturers provide discounts directly to eligible hospitals, health centers, and clinics. 🔹 Myth: Patients must receive direct 340B discounts at the pharmacy counter. ✅ Fact: Hospitals, health centers, and clinics use those savings to fund vital but unprofitable services, free/low-cost meds, transportation, and community programs, and many use them to keep their doors open. 🔹 Myth: Any hospital can join 340B. ✅ Fact: Only nonprofit safety-net providers that serve large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients or serve remote areas qualify. 🔹 Myth: 340B is a loophole hospitals exploit for profit. ✅ Fact: 340B is a lifeline that helps struggling hospitals keep their doors open and continue caring for vulnerable communities. 🔹 Myth: 340B only benefits hospitals. ✅ Fact: Patients and communities benefit most — through expanded services, affordable medications, and programs that wouldn’t exist otherwise. The bottom line is simple: 340B stretches limited resources so hospitals, health centers, and clinics can provide more care to more patients in need.

ICYMI: 🚐💙 The 340B drug pricing program fuels lifesaving innovations. At WVU Medicine, 340B savings support Bonnie’s Bus and LUCAS — mobile cancer units that bring vital cancer screenings to patients across rural West Virginia. On our latest 340B Insight podcast, Enterprise Director of 340B Karen Famoso shares how these programs expand access to cancer care where it’s needed most. 🎧 👉 https://lnk.to/340binsight #340B #CancerCare #AccessToCare #HealthEquity

On September 11, 340B Health hosted a Capitol Hill briefing where Roben Casey, chief legal & governance officer at East Alabama Health and a member of our Board of Directors, shared how the 340B drug pricing program sustains care for vulnerable communities. As Roben emphasized, “Without 340B, many hospitals like EAMC … would be unable to maintain many of the comprehensive services that their communities rely on.” As a membership organization, 340B Health works tirelessly to monitor, educate, and advocate for policies that protect our safety-net providers and the patients they serve. Now more than ever, health systems across the country depend on 340B to stretch scarce resources, preserve access, and keep services local. We thank Roben and East Alabama Health for amplifying this message before Congress. #340B #HealthEquity #AccessToCare #Advocacy http://bit.ly/46HbVdw

340B Restrictions are stripping billions of dollars from the health care safety net. If they continue, this is what to expect: 💔 1 in 3 critical access hospitals cut services ⚠️ 2 in 3 safety-net hospitals report patient harm 📉 90% fear more cuts ahead #Protect340B #HealthEquity

Hospitals use 340B savings not just to stretch resources but also to invest in mission-driven innovations. At West Virginia University Medicine, that innovation came in the form of Bonnie’s Bus and LUCAS—mobile cancer screening units that bring breast and lung cancer detection directly to patients in rural communities, where geography and incomes are major barriers to care. In our latest podcast episode, WVU Medicine Enterprise Director of 340B Karen Famoso shares how these programs came about, how they have saved lives, and why 340B savings are essential to sustaining them. 🎧 Listen Here: https://lnk.to/340binsight

Last year, East Alabama Health provided life-saving services that thousands of patients rely on every day: chemotherapy for cancer patients, Level III NICU care for fragile newborns, expanded mental health services, medications for patients in need, and care for low-income and rural communities. The 340B drug pricing program makes this possible. Without it, access to these services would be at risk, and hospitals such as East Alabama Health could not continue providing the same level of uncompensated care and community benefits. 340B isn’t just about lowering drug costs—it’s about strengthening hospitals and ensuring patients receive the care they need, close to home.

📢 ICYMI: How do #340B hospitals keep their teams trained & compliant in such a complex environment? 🎧 University of North Carolina’s Pooja Shah joined #340BInsight to share her approach to team education & stakeholder engagement. Listen here: https://lnk.to/340binsight

Safety-net hospitals participating in the #340B drug pricing program serve a higher share of seniors from underserved populations. Thanks to 340B savings, these hospitals can provide older adults with affordable medications and vital health care services, helping communities thrive and ensuring seniors receive the care they need. #Protect340B #HealthEquity #PatientCare #CommunityHealth