November 22, 2011—The joint congressional committee tasked with developing a $1-billion-plus deficit reduction plan announced yesterday that it had failed to reach a deal.
What the collapse of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction means for the 340B program is not completely clear. The panel’s failure to reach a bipartisan consensus triggers approximately $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts beginning in January 2013. [ms-protect-content id=”2799″]The Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA), which administers the 340B program, will be included in those reductions. In addition, although the Medicaid program is exempt from the cuts, Medicare payments to health care providers will be affected.
Meanwhile, Congress has yet to pass a fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The Senate Appropriations Committeehas passed a bill that would establish the first-ever user fee for providers enrolled in 340B. The 0.1 percent levy on drug purchases, which works out to a penny on every $10 dollars in sales, would generate $5 million annually for OPA program integrity efforts. The Senate panel said it wants OPA to use the funding to develop a transparent system to verify the accuracy of 340B ceiling prices.
The House Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, circulated a draft Labor-HHS-Education spending bill in late September that did not include the 340B user fee. It also would reduce OPA’s funding roughly in half, from $4.48 million to $2.21 million.
The current continuing resolution that is keeping the government running expires on Dec. 16. Congress must then pass a year-end omnibus spending package that includes funding for OPA and its parent agency, the Health Resources and Services Administration.[/ms-protect-content]