S7, Ep 6- 340B Program & Hospital Charity Care: What Patients Need to Know
About this episode
The episode discusses the 340B Drug Discount Program and its implications for patient access and hospital charity care.
In this episode of Healthcare Matters, Dr. Robert Popovian and co-host Angela Degrassi discuss the 340B Drug Discount Program and why a program created to help vulnerable patients has become an important issue for patient access, hospital transparency, and accountability. The conversation explains how 340B allows eligible hospitals and other covered entities to purchase certain outpatient medicines at steep discounts. The original purpose was to help safety-net providers stretch limited resources and support uninsured, underinsured, and underserved patients. Dr. Popovian emphasizes that the program is valuable and should not be eliminated but asks whether the savings are actually reaching patients directly. The episode also explores why many patients may not know they are receiving care at a 340B hospital, even though that hospital may be purchasing outpatient medicines at a significant discount. Patients are not automatically guaranteed to receive that discounted price, and hospitals are not clearly required to pass those savings directly to them. Robert and Angela also discuss findings from a study Dr. Popovian co-authored comparing 340B and non-340B…
Topics covered
- 340B Program
- Hospital Charity Care
- Patient Access
- Healthcare Transparency
- Vulnerable Patients
Keywords
- 340B Program
- hospital charity care
- patient access
- drug discounts
- healthcare transparency
More episodes of Healthcare Matters
- S7, Ep 5- How ACIP Lawsuits are Impacting Patients: When Vaccine Guidance Becomes an Access Problem
- S7, Ep 4- COVID Antivirals: Are High-Risk Patients Missing the Window?
- S7, Ep 3- 340B: Are Patients Seeing the Savings?
- S7, Ep 2- PBM Reform at an Inflection Point: What Comes Next?
- S7, Ep 1- The $29 Billion Problem: Understanding Influenza's True Economic Toll
- S6, Ep 10- TrumpRx & the Future of Drug Pricing: What Patients Need to Know
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