People struggling to get by in Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee are receiving vital health services thanks to their local hospitals’ access to 340B drug discounts, a cancer physician and hospital leader write in in their local newspapers.
“The 340B program is working exactly as it was intended by giving patients who need lifesaving care an opportunity to receive it at less expensive rates,” says Dr. Sue Prill, an oncologist affiliated with Kingsport, Tenn.-based Wellmont Health System, in a May 21 op-ed in Tricities.com, the website of the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier. Dr. Prill treats patients in Abingdon, Va., and Bristol, Tenn. “Many people in communities we serve have experienced hardships from the challenging economic times that have affected our country deeply in recent years. Our more rural communities have been particularly affected by this trend.”
Through its participation in 340B, “Wellmont can purchase drugs at a discount and pass on the reduced rates to low-income, uninsured and underinsured patients,” Dr. Prill continues. “This is a terrific way to help our patients receive the care they deserve and sometimes desperately need to survive.”
“This program is particularly helpful to the Wellmont Cancer Institute, which must pay extremely high prices for drugs,” she says. “We have been able to offer the 340B savings to patients at our cancer facilities in Johnson City and Kingsport, Tennessee, and Norton, Virginia. Patients of the Hawkins County Memorial Hospital, Hancock Lonesome Pine Hospital and Mountain View Regional Hospital also have received assistance from this outstanding program.”
Kevin M. Spiegel, President and CEO of Chattanooga’s Erlanger Health System, related a similar story in a May 11 op-ed in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
For Erlanger, which operates five hospital campuses and two community health centers and provides $92 million in uncompensated care annually, being able to purchase medications at a discount for eligible patients through 340B “means a savings of $9 million annually,” Spiegel explains.
“An example of an Erlanger program which is fully funded by these 340B savings is the pharmacy at the Dodson Avenue Community Health Center,” he says. “The Dodson Avenue pharmacy has dramatically reduced the multiple barriers of medication availability, accessibility, cost, and management for low-income patients. The 340B drug discount program supports Erlanger’s effort to provide these critical services that help keep local residents healthy and out of the hospital.”
Erlanger also uses its 340B savings to pay for “the free delivery of approximately 42,000 prescriptions to over 3,000 eligible Hamilton County patients every year,” Spiegel adds.
“The pharmaceutical industry wants Congress to revise or repeal the 340B law,” his essay concludes. “At stake is the health of some of our community’s most vulnerable residents. They will have the most to lose if drug discounts for the needy are no longer available to hospitals like Erlanger.”