Cassidy proposes new rules for 340B drug discount program

WASHINGTON — The chair of the Senate well being committee launched a invoice to limit a federal drug low cost program generally known as 340B that has been profitable for nonprofit hospitals.

The invoice by Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) comes as hospitals face assaults on their backside strains, particularly in Medicaid. The tax invoice that Republicans handed final summer time considerably decreased the federal authorities’s share of Medicaid prices and is anticipated to cut back the variety of folks on Medicaid. Hospitals additionally face the prospect of laws that might decrease hospital funds to ranges charged by physician workplaces, an concept generally known as site-neutral funds. 

The 340B program additionally has acquired scrutiny, and it may very well be a goal for reducing well being care spending in future laws. Cassidy has been trying into the 340B program for years, together with an investigation into the corporate that contracts with the federal government to be this system’s vendor and a listening to in October.