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Legislation
could help reduce prescription drug costs
for hospitals, opinion piece states
Sep 12, 2007--"Sicko," the recent documentary on
the U.S. health care system directed by
filmmaker Michael Moore, highlights the need
to "address the challenges of improving
access to pharmaceutical care," Ted Slafsky,
executive director of
Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical
Access, writes in an opinion piece in
The
Hill.
According to Slafsky, the "burden of providing
pharmaceutical care to vulnerable patients
falls increasingly on our nation's
hospitals, clinics and health centers,
particularly those with a charitable care
mission" as prescription drug costs continue
to increase and the number of uninsured U.S.
residents nears 47 million.
He cites the need to pass legislation
sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)
and John Thune (R-S.D.) and Reps. Bobby Rush
(D-Ill.), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Jo Ann
Emerson (R-Mo.) that would extend
340B, a program operated by the
Public Health Service that provides
prescription drug discounts to hospitals
that serve a large number of low-income and
uninsured patients.
The discounts currently "only apply to drugs used
on an outpatient basis due to the way the
340B law was written in 1992," and hospitals
must pay an average of 25% more for "drugs
given to patients that are admitted into
their facility for an overnight stay,"
Slafsky writes. He adds that the legislation
would "extend federal drug discounts to the
inpatient setting for these charitable
hospitals" and would "create savings for ...
Medicaid" through a provision to require the
hospitals to "share the savings" with the
program.
The legislation "certainly would not solve our
health care woes," but "it would go a long
way toward ensuring that safety net
hospitals in this country can continue their
mission of providing care to all patients
regardless of their ability to pay," Slafsky
concludes (Slafsky,
The Hill,
9/11).
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