In Law360, Analysis Group Authors Examine the Effectiveness of the 340B Drug Discount Program
June 27, 2025
The 340B Drug Discount Program was designed to support certain health care providers that care for vulnerable patients, including underinsured and uninsured patients, by allowing them to purchase drugs at significant discounts. However, two recent reports on the program’s effectiveness – from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the US Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee – have raised doubts about the degree to which 340B-eligible health care providers, known as covered entities, pass those discounts on to patients, including at the pharmacy counter. These concerns have prompted calls for policy reform and have increasingly played into the framing of Section 340B litigation disputes.
In an article published in Law360, Analysis Group Managing Principal Andrée-Anne Fournier, Manager Molly Frean, and their coauthor comment on both the legal and economic issues related to the 340B program. The authors offer their perspective on the MDH and HELP reports, describe the landscape of 340B-related litigation, and present their own analysis of the covered entities included in the MDH report. In particular, the authors assess whether 340B participation is associated with greater patient assistance as measured by hospital charity care expenditures.
The authors found that “while 23 hospitals generate the majority of the Section 340B program’s profits in Minnesota, their average charity care ratio…was low relative to state-level and national benchmarks.” Noting limitations of their analysis, they emphasize the need for legal arguments and policy decisions to be informed by further research and more comprehensive reporting on the impacts of the 340B program.