Healthcare is progressing due to the value-based healthcare system, telehealth solutions, and patient engagement solutions. The government too makes efforts to provide better healthcare facilities. But, there are loopholes in the system that challenge these provisions.
16 out of 28 hospitals are not providing patient discounts at pharmacies according to the provision under the 340B Drug Discount Program. This was found out in the recent survey conducted by Government Accountability Office.
The aim of the 340B Drug Discount Program is to lower costs of drugs and provide access for low-income patients. It requires pharmaceutical makers to sell discounted drugs to providers. However, regulators have found out that more than half of the surveyed hospitals may have siphoned off the savings.
The program is to lower costs for low-income patients and this according to Sayeh Nikpay, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University is one of the goals.
The report as mentioned by Dr. Nikpay implies that savings from the sales of these drugs are being retained as revenue and the hospitals use it elsewhere. The biggest challenge is that the hospitals are not needed to disclose how they utilize the revenue generated from the 340B program. Hospitals use this revenue for upgrading and expanding patient services.