State reform bill could mean more local care for cancer patients from private community practices
cCARE’s Dr. James Sinclair recently penned an editorial in the Times of San Diego outlining the ways in which the federal 340B drug pricing program favors large corporately-owned hospitals, while edging out independent, community-owned practices. While the program’s intent was to cut costs for cancer patients, the savings are not being passed onto patients, says Dr. Sinclair. And peer-reviewed research backs this claim.
“Profits from 340B have given hospitals a clear financial incentive to aggressively expand and take over cancer care across the country, including right here in Southern California,” he writes. “That was the finding of a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine and an exhaustive two-year investigation by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.”