The legal fight over drugmakers’ push to impose 340B rebates is heating up, with five lawsuits pending in a federal court in Washington, D.C. Recently, 340B Health joined with two of its member hospitals in asking the court to intervene as defendants to stop these rebates from taking effect. Genesis HealthCare System based in Ohio is one of those hospitals. Shona Carr, the director of 340B and ambulatory pharmacies at Genesis, breaks down how rebate models would create financial challenges for hospitals that would hamper their patient care initiatives.
Carrying and Compliance Costs
Each drugmaker’s push to impose rebates would incur new drug purchasing and compliance expenses for covered entities. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s rebate policy alone would cost Genesis HealthCare System an additional $400,000 per month in drug spend if it applied to all BMS drugs. If 340B rebate models became the norm for all drugmakers, Carr estimates Genesis would pay an additional $5.2 million per month in upfront costs. Those figures do not include additional hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual staffing expenses to process rebate claims and challenge denials.
Effects on Patient Care and Support
Imposing 340B rebates could force Genesis HealthCare System to scale back or discontinue its patient assistance program, according to Carr. But 340B savings do not just go towards direct patient help with drug costs at the hospital. The financial impact of rebates also could affect other community programs and free services, such as patient transportation, meds-to-beds, health screenings, and a paramedicine program.
Advice for Other Hospitals
Carr says every covered entity that has not already done so should begin reviewing drugmaker rebate policies and working with their 340B third-party administrators to estimate potential costs. She says this involves entities asking bigger questions: Would rebate policies require additional 340B staffing? Does senior leadership understand the potential impact of these changes? What 340B-funded programs might be at risk?
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