October 10, 2013—The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) canceled a 340B peer-to-peer network webinar yesterday in one of the first visible examples of the federal government shutdown’s effect on the 340B program.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
If the 10-day-old shutdown runs into the next two weeks, HRSA probably will have to postpone an Oct. 16 webinar on 340B recertification for Ryan White program grantees, an Oct. 21 webinar for sexually transmitted disease clinic grantees, and an Oct. 23 webinar for tuberculosis clinic grantees. Recertification of these three covered entity categories is supposed to begin in early November.
Yesterday’s peer-to-peer webinar, intended for hospitals, was to have covered best practices in determining patient eligibility. According to a notice in the 340B Forum on the LinkedIn social networking site, the event will be rescheduled after the government reopens.
Thus far, OPA has been able to keep its 340B database up and running, and is accepting covered entity and contract pharmacy registrations for the enrollment period that ends next Tuesday, Oct. 15. OPA has said, however, that it will not process registration requests until it is able to resume normal operations.
OPA has directed 340B stakeholders to contact the 340B Prime Vendor Program at (888) 340-2787 or ApexusAnswers@340Bpvp.com with any questions or concerns.
Fifty-eight percent of HRSA’s staff has been furloughed, just slightly above the 52 percent figure for the Department of Health and Human Services as a whole. Sixty-five percent of workers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and 45 percent of those at the Food and Drug Administration are on unpaid leave.[/ms-protect-content]