340B By the Numbers
$5.3 million: Amount of savings realized from the 340B program in Fiscal Year 2022
$39.6 million: Cost of unreimbursed and uncompensated care for patients in Fiscal Year 2022
Benefits of the 340B Program
Savings realized through participation in the 340B program affords patients high quality care, no matter their income level or insurance coverage. The cost savings from the program allows the system to provide a wide array of needed treatments and services, including:
- Discharge medications at no cost to unfunded or underfunded patients
- Access to financial assistance for high-cost medications, including connecting patients to manufacturer drug programs
- Clinical pharmacy services to patients with serious medical conditions to improve medication adherence and outcomes
- Access to specialty services, including the only Level II PICU in the area
- Pharmacological care coordination for newly-diagnosed conditions, including new onset juvenile diabetes
- Opioid stewardship program to help affected patients and families
- Admission medication reconciliation program to increase patient safety and compliance
- Outpatient specialty clinic that manages patients on warfarin and other anticoagulants
Specific Examples
Savings from the 340B program helped a patient with a rare hypotensive disease get access to an expensive therapy. The patient’s copay for the needed medication was $481.60. The hospital was able to provide this drug to the patient at no cost.
A pediatric patient was in need of injectable epinephrine due to a food allergy. The patient’s mother reached out to several local pharmacies and all of the options that were provided were unaffordable, even with insurance. The hospital’s pharmacist was able to connect the mother to the manufacturer’s drug program, and the patient received the medication (plus several refills) at no cost.
A pediatric patient needed major surgery and a higher level of care following an accident. The patient was able to receive the services at STPH, instead of having to travel over two hours roundtrip to the nearest PICU.
A pediatric patient needed testing supplies and medications for newly-diagnosed juvenile diabetes. The hospital was able to provide the patient with roughly $1,500 in medications and supplies through our 340B program savings.
A patient in our physician’s network was unable to afford their needed anticoagulant and had stopped taking the medication for several days. The physician’s office was working with the manufacturer to enroll the patient in the manufacturer assistance program. While this approval was pending, the hospital was able to provide a 90-day supply to the patient at no cost to ensure continued therapy. The cost of this medication for the patient would have been $1,567.09.
The 340B program savings help to fund the hospital’s meds to beds program. When filling a patient’s discharge medications, the pharmacists reviewed the patient’s profile and noticed that an anticoagulant had not been ordered on a post-operative joint replacement patient. This prevented the patient from developing a potential life-threatening deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.
Impact if 340B is scaled back
Scaling back the 340B Program would jeopardize our capacity to offer all the services mentioned above to our patients. 340B cuts would leave fewer hospital resources to help pay for uncompensated and unreimbursed care and would be especially harmful to patients who are uninsured, underinsured, and dependent on Medicaid and other programs.