HHS website now lists ceiling prices for 340B drugs

A 340B facility can now determine whether it’s being bilked by a drug manufacturer for covered drugs thanks to an update to an HHS website.

The Health Resources and Services Administration on Monday updated the Office of Pharmacy Affairs 340B Information System, which facilities use to register for the program. It now allows 340B providers to verify the accuracy of ceiling prices drugmakers are charging.

The lobbying group 340B Health, which represents more than 1,300 hospitals, said the new information can also help increase accountability for drug manufacturers.

“When this information is combined with the civil monetary penalty authority that Congress granted HRSA, manufacturers that knowingly and intentionally charge safety-net providers too much will be subject to financial penalties,” 340B Health CEO Maureen Testoni said in a statement.

HRSA spokesman Martin Kramer told Modern Healthcare that the agency was required to update the website as a result of a long-delayed and controversial rule that went into effect in January.

HHS was originally supposed to finalize the rule in July 2018 and had wanted to delay the rule’s implementation until July 2019 because it was concerned whether the rule originally proposed by the Obama administration was legal.

However, the American Hospital Association and other hospital trade groups sued the agency last fall to get them to finalize the regulations. HHS eventually agreed to implement the rule and settled the lawsuit.

The lawsuit over the rule’s implementation has been one front in a war between hospital groups and the Trump administration on 340B.

The administration tried to make a roughly 30% cut to 340B reimbursements to facilities, but a federal judge struck down those cuts in December 2018, saying the agency didn’t have the authority to implement them.

https://www.modernhealthcare.com/government/hhs-website-now-lists-ceiling-prices-340b-drugs