Is the 340B Discount Drug Program Working?

Letter to The WSJ.

"Your editorial “The Great 340B Healthcare Grift” (May 8) highlights a program that has strayed far from its original mission. While drug therapies are essential to cancer care, access to these medications is increasingly entangled in the 340B discount drug program—an initiative in desperate need of reform.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology recently published a policy statement detailing how to make the program more transparent and accountable. Essential reforms include requiring participating entities to meet select federal nonprofit charity care standards and implementing strict rules to ensure savings are used for direct patient care rather than unrelated hospital acquisitions or construction projects. Transparent financial reporting should demonstrate measurable improvements in care for underserved areas, backed by financial penalties for noncompliance.

Reform must also allow community-based nonhospital providers, which form the backbone of oncology in rural and underserved areas, to participate if they meet established thresholds for treating Medicaid and uninsured patients.

The 340B program is so embedded in our healthcare system that complete elimination risks harm to vulnerable patients. Instead, oncologists and policymakers must reform it.

Clifford Hudis, M.D., FASCO, FACP

American Society of Clinical Oncology

Alexandria, Va."