December 3, 2012—The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has sent emails to community health centers formally notifying them that recertification of their eligibility for 340B drug discounts will begin in January.
HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), which oversees the federal health center program, sent the messages about the recertification requirement to center officials in November.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″] The bureau is working in partnership with HRSA’s Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA), which administers the 340B program.
The email encourages health centers to visit OPA’s 340B covered entity database to verify that information for their 340B authorizing official and primary contact is up to date, that their address is listed correctly, and that their listed sites are still open and eligible to participate. They can make most changes using OPA’s new online change request form. Changes related to 340B authorizing officials, changes in contract pharmacy relationships, and termination requests still need to be submitted by email on OPA’s old PDF form.
BPHC also told health centers to cross-check their information in the 340B database with that in their HRSA electronic handbook, the online tool that centers use to manage their HRSA grant portfolios.
OPA held a webinar for health centers on Aug. 14 about what to expect during the recertification process. The BPHC email included a link to a recording of the session. During the August webinar, OPA said the November email to centers would be followed by a second in December explaining the recertification process in more detail, and then finally by a third in January with the username and password authorizing officials will need to complete the process online.
Hospitals recertified their eligibility for 340B for the first time in April and May of 2012. The second annual recertification of 340B hospitals is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013. [/ms-protect-content]