340B Program

What Is the 340B Program?

The 340B Drug Pricing Program (“340B Program”) is a federal drug discount program that Congress passed into law in 1992. The 340B Program requires drug manufacturers to provide drugs at discounted prices to hospitals that provide a disproportionate share of uncompensated care to patients who are unwilling or unable to pay. Hospitals that qualify for the 340B Program are nonprofit or government entities that provide a substantial amount of care to Medicaid and low-income Medicare patients. The 340B Program benefit compensates hospitals for uncompensated care and helps “stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services.” (Health Resources and Services Administration [HRSA], Office of Pharmacy Affairs [OPA] Website, August 2019. 340B Drug Pricing Program. Retrieved from https://www.hrsa.gov/opa/index.html.)

About University of Utah Health

University of Utah Health (U of U Health) is the only academic health system in the Mountain West region. We serve patients in Utah and five surrounding states, servicing an area that comprises 10 percent of the geographic United States. Our mission is to improve health and quality of life through excellence in patient care, education, and research. As a Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) and safety net provider, U of U Health serves a large proportion of low-income and uninsured patients. Many of the services we provide are under- or unreimbursed, qualifying U of U Health for the 340B Program. U of U Health is committed to 340B Program compliance. We invest in the needed resources and infrastructure to ensure we continue to meet the 340B Program rules and provide uncompensated care to those who need it.

How the 340B Program Benefits Our Community

U of U Health has participated in the 340B Program for more than 25 years. In FY 2018, we spent more than $256 million on medications. Without the 340B Program, our medication spend would have been more than $405 million. The savings generated from the 340B Program allow us to improve patient outcomes in our community and provide critical services to patients who would otherwise lack access to care.   

Improved access to care

In line with the original intent of the 340B Program, U of U Health has used its 340B savings well to reach a larger number of eligible patients and improve access to care. 

We use our 340B savings to improve access to care by:

  • Providing clinical care to patients who are unable to pay for services. Uncompensated or charity care is provided to our patients for free or at a discounted rate.
  • Providing patients access to medications through our Medication Support Services (MSS) program. Patients who qualify for the MSS program receive their medications free of charge from U of U Health pharmacies. Since November 2018, the MSS program has provided free medications to more than 1,000 patients.
  • Helping patients to access medications through our Pharmacy Assistance Program (PAP) and Huntsman Medication Access Coordination (MAC) programs. Our PAP and MAC teams connect patients with federal, state, or private resources that provide coupons, grants, and free or discounted drugs. In FY 2018:
    • The PAP Program helped more than 2,200 patients access medications through foundations or other programs.
    • The MAC program helped more than 1,500 patients access medications free of charge.
  • Subsidizing health care services that operate at a loss, including mental health, substance abuse, psychiatry, crisis intervention, primary care, HIV, air ambulance, and other outpatient specialty services.
  • Providing free or discounted clinical services to the public, including skin cancer screenings, physical exams, diabetes screenings, and mental health assessments.
  • Investing in a robust telehealth and education program that connects providers to patients living in rural areas. Our TeleStroke and TeleBurn programs connect primary care providers serving rural communities with specialists that triage and develop care plans for complex patient care.
  • Providing certified translators in over 90 languages for patients who do not speak English as their primary language. Robust and extensive translation services break down the language barriers and help our clinical teams better communicate and connect with our non-English speaking patients in their native tongue. In addition, University of Utah Health donates 10 medical translation certification courses per year to nonprofit agencies that serve our refugee population.   

Improved patient outcomes

In addition to expanding access to care, our 340B savings helps us provide value-added services that improve patient outcomes. 

We use our 340B savings to invest in programs that improve patient outcomes, including:

  • Treating patients with chronic conditions in the ambulatory or same-day care setting when possible and preventing hospital admissions. (U of U Health ranked #1 according to Vizient Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Performance Score Card.)
  • Providing bins for patients to safely dispose of unused narcotics in our community pharmacies. Removing unneeded opioids from the community helps decrease opioid misuse, abuse, and overdose. 
  • Deploying Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams (MCOT) that perform crisis interventions and aim to stabilize patients in the community and prevent emergency department or inpatient admissions. MCOT has been able to handle 93 percent of cases in the community setting, thereby diverting trips to the emergency room and decreasing unnecessary high-risk and more expensive care.
  • Developing and supporting the SafeUT app, which is the official crisis and suicide prevention line for children and young adults in the state of Utah. U of U Health clinicians respond to phone calls and chats in real-time and counsel clients on drug and alcohol abuse, depression, loss, grief, and a variety of other issues.
  • Preventing hospital readmissions and medication-related issues through a transitions of care program. Pharmacists review medication histories and clinical notes for high-risk patients discharged from the hospital. The pharmacists answer any follow-up questions or concerns and ensure the patients are able to pick up their medications.
  • Preventing the spread of HIV infection through a free HIV prevention clinic. The clinic provides free sexual health counseling, STD and HIV testing, and HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). Since its opening in March 2018, more than 150 patients have enrolled in the program, and the clinic plans to expand enrollment to an additional 500 patients in 2019.