Medicare 340B Brawl Drags On

The ongoing battle over the Medicare 340B program rages on, in and out of the courthouse. The program, which requires a discount on drugs to health systems that primarily serve underinsured patients, was cut back by the Trump administration. These cuts were challenged in a series of legal battles that led to a Supreme Court decision in favor of the 340B program.

According to Mintz, “There is, however, still an open question as to remedy, which the Supreme Court did not address. A complicating issue is that the OPPS is budget-neutral, so conceivably, savings in drug payments were offset by increases in payment for non-drug services. CMS released a proposed rule for the OPPS for calendar year 2023 that formally included the same ASP – 22.5% rate for 340B-acquired drugs, although this was a function of the fact that Becerra was decided the same day that the proposed rule was released. CMS indicated that in light of the Becerra decision, it planned to apply a rate of ASP + 6% in the final OPPS rule.”

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(Source: Mintz, September 28^th, 2022)