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The 340B Drug Discount Program has helped improve healthcare for millions of Americans for more than 30 years without costing the public a dime. It’s time to build on this success by expanding 340B to include Rural Emergency Hospitals.
The 340B program was created by a bi-partisan Congress in 1992 to help nonprofit safety-net hospitals and other health-care providers better serve patients and stretch resources. There are now 2,600 hospitals in the program. The best part? 340B is not funded by taxpayers. It’s paid for by the megabucks drug industry which has tried to smother the program almost since inception. For Big Pharma, profits are far more important than real-life patients.
340B helps safety-net hospitals provide medication management clinics, free and reduced-price drugs, primary and cancer care, behavioral health services, hepatitis C treatment, cardio-rheumatology clinics and preventative care initiatives -- and much more.
Rural hospitals face daunting economic challenges. More than 150 have closed since 2010, according to the University of North Carolina Shep’s Center. 340B savings are essential to helping the remainder survive. Recognizing the challenge, Congress created the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) as a new provider type in 2020. The goal of the REH designation is to preserve emergency outpatient hospital services in communities that can’t support a Critical Access Hospital or small rural hospital.
The law took effect in 2023 and 36 hospitals have already converted to the new rubric. That includes facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas. These are precisely the kind of health centers that should be part of the 340B program but currently are not eligible.
We call on Congress to allow Rural Emergency Hospitals into the 340B program. These facilities are exactly what the 340B program was originally designed to help. They treat high numbers of underserved outpatients and are central to Making America Healthy Again.
The time for Congress to act is now.