Albany Still Has Time to Protect 340B. But Not Much.

The state budget is done. But for New York’s community health centers and the patients who depend on them, a critical issue remains.

Despite strong support from safety-net providers, advocates and legislative champions, protections for the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program were not included in the final state budget. With the end of the legislative session just days away, New York now has a narrow but urgent window to protect 340B and the safety-net providers who rely on it.

In Westchester County, where I serve as CEO of Westchester Community Health Center, and in my work as Board Chair for the Community Health Care Association of New York State, I see daily the work that community health centers do which makes them more than just health care providers. They are trusted partners, economic drivers and often the first place people turn when they need help.

By mission and mandate, community health centers care for everyone who walks through their door. We provide primary, dental, behavioral health and women’s health care to 2.5 million New Yorkers each year. We do this in every part of the state: in cities, suburbs, rural communities and small towns. And we do it regardless of a patient’s income, insurance status, language, ZIP code or ability to pay.

Our mission is possible because community health centers are built differently. We are nonprofit, community-governed organizations created to meet the needs of the people and neighborhoods we serve. We stretch every dollar as far as it can go. We reinvest in communities, workforce and the services our patients need. Yet oftentimes that care doesn’t pay – across the country and here in New York, health centers are losing money.

One of the most important tools that helps fill this gap and make the care we provide possible is the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program. For community health centers, 340B allows us to purchase certain medications at reduced prices and use the savings to support care for patients and communities that too often face the greatest barriers to health. Those savings help health centers do exactly what Congress intended when they created the program: stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible.

Unfortunately, this program is increasingly under attack. Drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers and other powerful interests have sought to restrict, undermine or capture the value of 340B, lining their pockets with funds that once supported community care. As long as 340B is in danger, the care we provide is in danger too.

When 340B savings are reduced, delayed or diverted away from community health centers, it results in fewer services, longer wait times, less pharmacy access and fewer resources to support patients.

Regardless of what Big Pharma might say, 340B is not a windfall to safety-net providers. It is a decades-old federal program designed to help safety-net providers serve more patients and provide more comprehensive care at no cost to taxpayers.

While federal changes threaten to increase the number of New Yorkers who are uninsured, community health centers are being called upon to do more with less. We know that in the coming months these changes will mean more patients walking through our doors in need of care, and more uncompensated care for organizations like mine that are already operating in crisis mode.

The state budget may be finished, but the work of protecting access to care is not. Before session ends, lawmakers have an opportunity to stand with patients, protect safety-net providers and ensure that 340B savings continue to support care in communities across New York by passing the 340B Prescription Drug Anti-Discrimination Act.

The budget did not finish the job. The Legislature still can.