Patient Safety | 01.20.23
HHS Will Decide How to Resolve $1 Billion in Payments for 340B Hospitals
by STAT News
A federal court has determined that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will decide how to compensate hospitals for years of underpayments related to the 340B federal drug discount program's Medicare payment formulas. HHS owes hospitals over $1 billion in repayments, and hospitals wanted the court to compel the federal government to pay them back immediately. The dispute stemmed from the Supreme Court's June 2022 ruling that the Trump administration's cuts to payment rates for drugs hospitals acquired via the 340B drug discount program were illegal. The situation is complicated by the fact that hospitals that are not part of the discount program received additional payments for prescription drugs while the cuts were in place. American Hospital Association General Counsel Melinda Hatton says the group wants 340B hospitals to be paid back, with interest, without penalizing other hospitals. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said HHS has several potential methods of addressing the situation, such as raising future pay rates for 340B hospitals.
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