Consequences of the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The 340B Drug Pricing Program entitles qualifying hospitals to discounts on outpatient drugs, increasing the profitability of drug administration. By tying the program eligibility of hospitals to their Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) adjustment percentage, which reflects the proportion of hospitalized patients who are low-income, the program is intended to expand resources for underserved populations but provides no direct incentives for hospitals to use financial gains to enhance care for low-income patients.

Methods

We used Medicare claims and a regression-discontinuity design, taking advantage of the threshold for program eligibility among general acute care hospitals (DSH percentage, >11.75%), to isolate the effects of the program on hospital-physician c

SUBMITTER: Desai S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6073067 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature