340B drug pricing plan vital to low-income health

To the Times: One can only imagine the hardship associated with telling a patient who lives below the poverty line that they are unable to afford life-saving medications to help manage their chronic disease or fight cancer. However, thanks to a newly embattled federal initiative – the 340B Drug Pricing Program – our most vulnerable patients have access to the medication they need.

The 340B program provides discounts on outpatient prescription drugs to qualified health-care providers that serve large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients, such as Mercy Health System. The savings generated through this program allow us to offer community support and programs to those most in need.

But now the viability of the 340B Drug Pricing Program is under threat. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently proposed dramatic cuts to this vital lifeline. These proposed cuts aim to drastically reduce the Medicare Part B reimbursements on outpatient medications dispensed by 340B Program hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of poverty-stricken patients, especially impacting lowincome cancer patients. This change would result in a significant reduction in our ability— and the ability of comparable safety net hospitals around the country—to care for our communities. Because of this program, we can stretch limited resources to expand access to care for vulnerable patients. If the proposed cuts are fully enacted, Mercy Health System faces an immediate financial impact in Medicare payments and may be forced to further limit vital, life-preserving services to those who otherwise may not afford them.

Congress created the 340B program more than 20 years ago to give eligible healthcare providers financial relief from high prescription drug prices. It’s no secret those costs have only skyrocketed in the last two decades.

Beyond financial assistance to patients unable to afford prescriptions, hospitals across the country use the savings from 340B to provide clinical pharmacy services, oncology services and community outreach programs.

Locally, the savings from 340B help all our patients—nearly 99,383 of your neighbors—improve their health. Mercy Health System uses the savings generated through the 340B program to hold free mammogram screening programs, free community athletic screening programs for students and free, monthly community health education sessions. In addition, this program allows us to provide bedside prescription deliveries prior to a patient’s discharge. Ultimately, the program helps keep readmission rates down.

Mercy Health System has a clear mission—to serve as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within our communities. We stand with and are committed to serving those who are disadvantaged. A reduction in the 340B program is a clear threat to our calling.

The pharmaceutical industry—with its more than $300 billion in U.S. sales last year—is fighting to decrease the size and scope of this critical public program, which represents only two percent of prescription drugs purchased each year.

Do we want to let drug company interests influence government decisions to scale back a program that helps large numbers of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable? For patients and their families served by Mercy Health System, the answer is clear.

Contact your federal elected officials and tell them you oppose Medicare payment cuts to hospitals participating in the 340B Program. Help protect this valuable program that benefits those Philadelphians most in need.