Big Pharma v The Hospitals, cont'd.
Plus the income tax fiscal note, overseeing security guards, long days for fiscal committees, and dealing with the penny's exit
The biggest drug pricing program no one’s ever heard of is now one that Olympia insiders have probably heard too much about.
The pitched battle between Big Pharma and an array of safety net hospitals and clinics over the federal 340B program seems to have consumed every health care lobbyist on the Capitol campus, and is now sprawling. Democratic bills1 advancing in the House and Senate would ensure the safety net providers can widen their access to a sweet backdoor subsidy on pills.
Why you should care: The 340B program it’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars to nonprofit and private hospitals and community and tribal clinics, who make a credible argument that COVID, state Medicaid and tax decisions, and federal cuts have hammered their balance sheets. It’s also worth tuning in to because there are credible arguments that federal apathy has allowed the above providers to exploit a huge loophole that, on the surface, Big Pharma pays for, but they argue has broader costs to health care insurers.
