The 340B Drug Pricing Program was created to help expand access to discounted medicines for vulnerable patients. Instead, big hospitals, chain pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are capturing billions of dollars in profits off the program at the expense of patients.
In Colorado, only 25% of 340B pharmacies are located in medically underserved areas, leaving behind the vulnerable patients the program is intended to help. To make matters worse, 73% of 340B hospitals in Colorado provide below-average levels of free or reduced-cost care to low-income patients.
Colorado policymakers must ensure discounts on medicines are reaching the low-income patients they're meant to help.
Join us today and send a letter to your state lawmakers urging them to stop letting big hospitals, chain pharmacies and PBM middlemen cash in on the 340B program at the expense of vulnerable patients.
Dear Legislator,
As your constituent, I am writing to bring attention to abuses surrounding the 340B Drug Pricing Program and ask for your help in protecting vulnerable Colorado patients.
The federal 340B program was designed to help expand access to discounted medicines for low-income, uninsured and otherwise vulnerable patients. However, large nonprofit hospitals are using 340B to buy medicines at deeply discounted rates but charge higher prices for both uninsured and insured patients. And they are using hundreds of thousands of chain pharmacies to expand their use of the program and increase their profits. The 64 hospitals in Colorado that are part of the 340B program have 1,118 contracts with pharmacies nationwide, nearly 550 of which are with pharmacies not even located in Colorado. The nation's three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) - CVS, Express Scripts and OptumRx - along with Walgreens and Walmart control more than 75% of 340B contract pharmacy relationships.
Profit margins at 340B contract pharmacies are over three times larger than those of non-340B drugs dispensed through independent pharmacies. These contract pharmacies – that rarely serve Colorado's most vulnerable and medically underserved patients – share in billions of dollars in discounts that hospitals get through the program, but there's scarce evidence that any of that money is used to lower patient costs. In Colorado, 73% of 340B hospitals provide less free and discounted care than the national average for all hospitals. And there are no requirements that 340B hospitals must share the 340B discounts with patients or report their profits from the program. Instead, 340B hospitals and pharmacies are keeping the discounts as profit, enriching themselves and the PBMs that own the pharmacies.
The federal government meant for 340B to expand access to treatments for vulnerable, low- income patients, not increase profit margins for hospitals and big corporations.
I urge you to stand against policies that are giveaways for PBMs, chain pharmacies and hospitals and ensure these entities are not empowered to continue abusing the program for profit at the expense of vulnerable Colorado patients.
Thank you for your leadership and attention on this critical patient issue.
Sincerely,
Name
