How one bad law drives hospital consolidation and high health care costs | Opinion
A law from the 1990s, the 340B Drug Pricing Program, is incentivizing hospital mergers and driving up prices, writes contributor Sally C. Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute.Americans are getting squeezed by rising health care costs. The latest numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that patient out-of-pocket spending increased by 10.4% in 2021, a rate not seen for more than three decades. The cost of monthly health insurance premiums also leapt, by 6.5%.
Many hospital acquisitions these days are driven by a single well-intended but poorly written policy, the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which became law in 1992 and expanded in 2003. The goal was to help low-income patients get access to medicine and improve their health. Instead, 340B has turned into a cash grab for wily operators gaming the system.
All this has encouraged acquisitions to the point that now, the 10 largest health care systems in the United States control nearly one-quarter of all hospitals. In short, large hospital systems are exploiting the law to sweep ever-larger swaths of the health care system into 340B, including facilities in affluent areas. The number of hospitals and clinics enrolled in the program increased by an astonishing 517% from 2000 to 2020.
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