Byline: Elizabeth Kutter, Senior Director, Government & Political Affairs
Right now, a low-income patient in Northern Michigan is picking up a drug at a discounted price that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. In another corner of the state, a cancer patient is receiving lifesaving treatment, without having to make decisions between their care and their family’s needs.
Michigan hospitals care for our communities every day because of the savings they receive from the 340B Prescription Drug Pricing Program. Since being established by Congress in the early 1990s, this cost-saving program helps to spread scarce resources and provides a safety net to vulnerable patients and communities with limited or no access to healthcare.
The impact of 340B goes far beyond drug prices. It helps maintain community-based services at Federally Qualified Health Centers, cancer hospitals, HIV/AIDs clinics, critical access hospitals and tribal health centers among many other organizations. The program savings help eligible entities support mobile health clinics, cancer care access, financial assistance programs, meals on wheels, neonatal intensive care transports, behavioral health access and many other programs informed by the communities that benefit from the eligible program participants being in their backyard. 340B hospitals support community informed opportunities to positively impact public health.
In my role at the MHA, I’ve had countless conversations with our members about the benefits of 340B. The sentiment across the board – especially among rural hospitals and urban safety net hospitals – is that the program is essential for meeting patients where they are. The American Hospital Association shares a similar message, noting that 340B generates valuable savings for eligible hospitals to invest in programs that enhance patient services and access to care. The program’s design speaks directly to the ability for 340B covered entities to reflect on their community needs, it’s not a program that attempts to decide where savings need to go but instead focuses on the individual needs of every community being served resulting in increased quality of care and access to healthcare in all corners of Michigan.
Unfortunately, manufacturers and other players at the state and federal level are working to scale back the program and put arbitrary limits on program participation. The most recent and current attempt being to condition 340B contractual pharmacy relationships, harming the program’s ability to extend to patients in the places they live. Because of these attempts to frustrate the program, Michigan hospitals are at risk of losing their ability to provide affordable, accessible care to those in need. Every effort spent to manage the new onslaught of administrative burden created by manufactures, is less savings going directly into communities in need of affordable care.
Rarely are we presented with the opportunity to support meaningful access to drug cost reductions and affordable community care access, but House Bill 5350 allows us to do just that. The proposed legislation helps protect 340B at the state level to maintain healthcare cost-savings for our hospitals and the communities they serve. Contact your lawmaker and tell them how important 340B is to you, your community, and most importantly the patients you serve. Protecting our ability to care for our state’s most vulnerable patients is of the utmost importance, and HB 5350 does just that.
It’s our job to safeguard resources that advance the health of Michigan communities. I hope you’ll join me – and many others – in advocating for my favorite combination of numbers and letter: 340B.
Members with questions may contact me.