January 30, 2014—All 340B covered entities other than hospitals and Title X family planning centers will need to recertify their eligibility for the drug discount program during a four-week period that begins Feb. 10, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA).[ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
The Affordable Care Act required all covered entities for the first time to validate their information in OPA’s 340B database at least once a year. OPA began implementing the requirement in late 2011 and has been recertifying entities in batches based on their type during the course of each year. OPA gives entities four weeks to complete the recertification process. Entities that fail to recertify their eligibility by the deadline are removed from the program.
OPA held a Jan. 22 webinar for the types of entities going through recertification next month. They are:
- Consolidated Health Centers
- Federally Qualified Health Centers
- Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alikes
- Native Hawaiian Health Centers
- Tribal/Urban Indian Health Centers
- Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Grantees
- Black Lung Clinics
- Comprehensive Hemophilia Diagnostic Treatment Centers
- Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinics
- Tuberculosis (TB) Clinics
On Feb. 10, the official at each covered entity who authorizes its participation in 340B will get an email from HRSA with the username and password her or she needs to perform the recertification process online. According to OPA’s recent webinar slides, “this would be the person responsible and whom the federal government would reach out to for requests of compliance, integrity evaluations, and audits.”
“So for many entities,” OPA continued, “this is the grantee of record or the clinic director based upon federal funding streams.”
STD clinics, TB clinics, and Ryan White program grantees were originally scheduled to go through the recertification process starting on Nov. 18. OPA pushed back the start date due to technical issues.
OPA has not set a recertification start date for 340B hospitals and Title X centers for 2014.[/ms-protect-content]