Eli Lilly cuts 340B discounts to hospitals that withhold claims data
Eli Lilly has stopped extending 340B drug discounts to about 50 larger hospital systems that refused to submit detailed claims data, STAT News reports . The move is the latest escalation in a multi-year dispute between manufacturers and hospitals over the federal program, which requires drugmakers to sell certain outpatient drugs at steep discounts to safety-net providers.
Drugmakers argue that without claims data they cannot verify that discounted drugs go to eligible patients or prevent duplicate discounts; hospitals counter that the data demands are a pretext to shrink a program they rely on to fund care for low-income patients. Lilly’s action sidesteps the program’s rules rather than waiting on the federal government, which has so far declined to penalize manufacturers for imposing such conditions — a stance that has emboldened other companies to do the same and is likely to draw further litigation.