September 8, 2014—The next 340B eligibility recertification period for federally qualified health centers and look-alikes will be in February 2015, Health Resources and Services Administration officials said during a webinar today.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
Hospital recertification began last month and will end this Wednesday, Sept. 10. Health centers last went through the recertification process last February and March.
The webinar, which was held specifically for health centers, covered HRSA’s 340B compliance strategy in general, the 340B registration process for centers, the annual recertification requirement, and HRSA’s 340B peer-to-peer network.
Access to 340B drug discounts is a great benefit for health centers and other 340B providers, but with it comes great responsibility, Ann Pierpoint of HRSA’s Office of Pharmacy Affairs told the webinar participants. To ensure that providers comply with all requirements, she said, HRSA carefully reviews their eligibility when they initially register and requires them to verify the accuracy of their files in the 340B database every year. She reminded the participants that HRSA also does targeted and risk-based audits of providers.
In a presenter’s note to one of her slides, Pierpoint added that “we are currently working to formalize existing program guidance designed to cover a number of aspect of the 340B program.” HRSA’s so-called 340B “mega-reg” was originally slated for final publication in June, but it has been placed on hold due to the drug industry’s 340B orphan drug exclusion lawsuit.
The next opportunity for providers to register for 340B discounts will be Oct. 1 through 15, for a Jan. 1, 2015 start date. Pierpoint and her co-presenter, Karl Reis of HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care, both emphasized that it is impossible to register a health center site if the site is not listed as “Active” on Form 5B in the center’s electronic handbook. Form 5B lists the sites in a center’s scope of project.
“The key to remember is your information must be up to date in the EHB on the day you register,” reads one of the presenter’s notes to a webinar slide. “We cannot prospectively approve registrations. For example: If your grant status is pending because you have not opened a site, the site is not eligible. Even if plans are to open it before the next quarter begins, we cannot prospectively approve the site.”[/ms-protect-content]