Who Is Benefiting From the 340B Program?

States should stop bolstering a broken program, and Congress must close the loopholes that continue to harm patients

WSJ editorial. 

"Your editorial (“The Great 340B Healthcare Grift,” May 8) is exactly right. 340B drug discounts are fattening the coffers of large hospitals and pharmacies at the expense of patients—and it’s a scandal. The judge correctly called it a “coordinated collusion” that’s exploiting “Congress’s inattention to a federal program.”

A growing wealth of data show that profits are soaring for so-called charity-care hospitals, and that 340B hospitals with the highest share of cancer patients pursue aggressive medical-debt collection tactics against those the program was created to support. Yet state lawmakers continue to propose and pass reforms at the behest of hospitals to protect this unintended windfall.

Anyone who lives in a city with a significant hospital presence has likely noticed the steady expansion of hospital names and buildings—often concentrated in affluent communities rather than areas with large numbers of uninsured or low-income patients. States should stop bolstering a broken program, and Congress must bring transparency to 340B to close the loopholes that continue to harm patients.

Sally Greenberg

CEO, National Consumers League"