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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Discount drug program at center of hospital, pharmaceutical dispute.


The New York Times (2/13, Pollack, Subscription Publication, 1.68M) says a little-known federally mandated drug discount program, dubbed 340B, "is now under siege, the focus of a fierce battle between two powerful forces - the pharmaceutical industry, which wants to rein in the discounts, and the hospitals, which say they might have to cut services without them. One issue is that the program allows hospitals to use the discounted drugs to treat not only poor patients but also those covered by Medicare or private insurance. In those cases, the hospital pockets the difference between the reduced price it pays for the drug and the amount it is reimbursed." Pharmaceutical industry trade groups issued a report Tuesday that said some hospitals have gone overboard with the program to generate revenue, calling for the discounts to be more narrowly focused.
        CQ (2/13, Adams, Subscription Publication) quotes from the pharmaceutical industry report, "Clinical decision-making may be skewed by efforts to take advantage of the 340B discount," so "full and transparent accounting for all cost savings derived from the 340B program should be required to ensure that they are used to reduce drug costs for uninsured indigent patients."

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