Some hospital outpatient clinics may lose their 340B drug discount status despite trade groups’ pleas to the federal government.

On May 11, the Health Resources and Services Administration removed guidance from its website, issued in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, that allowed 340B-eligible hospitals to prescribe discounted drugs for patients seen at off-site clinics before those clinics were registered with the Office of Pharmacy Affairs Information System and were listed on a Medicare cost report

The 340B drug discount program gives some 2,600 eligible hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients drug discounts as steep as 50%. If guidance is rescinded, hospitals must wait up to two years after an off-site clinic opens to access the discounts.