ICYMI: Carrie Michalski, CEO of RiverVeiw Health in Crookston, Minnesota, wrote in the Fargo Forum that the 340B Drug Pricing Program is the difference between care being there and not being there in her community.
RiverView Health is the health care safety net for Polk County and the surrounding region. As a hospital treating a high percentage of Medicare and Medicaid patients, it qualifies for 340B which means it can purchase certain outpatient medications at a discount and reinvest those savings into patient care.
Michalski said:
I want to be honest with Minnesotans about what we are facing. Without 340B, I do not know how we keep doing what we do. The savings from this program support pharmacy services, emergency care, behavioral health, and care for patients who are uninsured or on public programs that do not cover the full cost of their treatment. Those are not luxuries. Those are the basic services a community needs from its hospital.
Against this backdrop, more than 20 multinational for profit drug manufacturers have imposed restrictions that block hospitals like ours from accessing 340B discounts through our contract pharmacies. For rural hospitals, these restrictions mean losing $500,000 or more every year.
340B is under attack from Big Pharma and Minnesota has the chance to protect it. A bill in the Minnesota legislature that would permanently protect the program and give the attorney general authority to enforce the law and hold pharmaceutical companies accountable.
