US federal drug discount program 'faces challenges as it expands'

A federal program that provides billions in drug discounts to safety net hospitals and other health care providers in the USA is expanding under health care reform, but divergent views on the purpose and future scope of the program creates uncertainty for safety net providers and drug manufacturers, according to new analysis from the RAND Corporation.

The so-called 340B program faces a number of critical issues, such as whether to change and better define eligibility, strengthen compliance efforts and provide greater transparency about the discounts provided through the program, according to the report. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration is developing new regulations to address these and other issues.

“Policymakers need a clear, objective description of the 340B program and the challenges it faces on the road ahead,” said Andrew Mulcahy, the report’s lead author and a policy researcher at RAND, a non-profit research organization. “There are increasingly divergent views on the program’s purpose and the role it should play in supporting safety net providers,” he noted.