Opposition is growing to recent efforts of drug manufacturers to restrict drug discounts for 340B hospitals and access to life-saving drugs for patients. In a letter this week to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, 246 members of the House of Representatives members signed a letter urging the agency to take action to stop these activities and protect the 340B program. At WSHA’s request, nearly the entire Washington State delegation signed onto the letter including: Reps DelBene, Larsen, Herrera Beutler, Newhouse, Kilmer, Schrier, Smith, and Heck. A similar letter is being circulated in the Senate.
In addition, the American Hospital Association sent a second letter to HHS expressing concerns regarding recent activities of major drug manufacturers to restrict provision of drugs and discounts to qualified 340B entities. WSHA is monitoring this situation closely and asks WSHA member hospitals notify us if they experience cases where manufacturers inappropriately deny sales or discounts on 340B drugs. Recently, several major drug manufacturers have recently begun burdensome reporting requirements for 340B entities as a condition of payment, with some indicating they plan to unilaterally deny purchase of drugs and/or 340B discounts to qualified entities in violation of federal requirements. (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org)