340B Policy Principles & Priorities

Advocates for Community Health envisions a 340B program that works exactly as it was intended: a stable, reliable resource that allows health centers to stretch scarce federal dollars and expand access to care.

Recent analysis of ACH member data shows that one in every four 340B dollars supports care for rural Americans. These resources are reinvested directly into patient services, including:

• Keeping rural clinics open
• Expanding telehealth services
• Operating mobile and school-based clinics
• Providing transportation and other enabling services

ACH supports reform that strengthens transparency and accountability without restricting CHC participation or reducing patient access to affordable medications.

The current reach of the Community Health Center Program would not be possible without the 340B Drug Discount Program. Data has shown that health centers’ grants and payer reimbursements consistently fail to cover the cost of the comprehensive services provided in the CHC environment. In fact, when Congress created the 340B program in 1992, they recognized this reality – that the 340B drug pricing program would allow safety net providers to “stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services.”

By allowing the purchase of drugs at a discounted price, the 340B program enables health centers and other covered entities to funnel the resulting savings into serving more patients with highly complex clinical and social needs than they otherwise could. In today’s economic environment, health centers depend on the 340B program to meet their mission, putting every dollar received back into the communities they serve.