DPC Testifies in Opposition to 340B Expansion in North Dakota

On February 10, Domestic Policy Caucus Secretary/Treasurer Kent Kaiser, Ph.D., testified virtually before the North Dakota State House Committee on Industry, Business, and Labor in opposition to HB1473, which aims to expand the federal 340B drug pricing program in the state. 

In part, Kaiser testified, "Making a flawed program bigger is not the answer. The 340B program should be fixed before there’s any discussion about expanding it. You should provide oversight to hold covered entities responsible for delivering on 340B’s stated purpose. Simply defining who is a 340B patient and ensuring the money flows to those eligible patients—instead of big box pharmacies and hospital systems—is a commonsense first step."

"In addition, you should require entities receiving 340B windfalls to notify the people whom they consider to be 340B patients so those patients know they should be receiving discounts on their prescriptions. Finally, you have an opportunity to inject accountability and transparency into the system by requiring entities that receive 340B money to report exactly how much they receive and exactly where that money flows—specifically, to report exactly how much actually goes towards providing discounted medicines to patients like it was supposed to," Kaiser said.

Watch the full committee hearing here, (DPC testimony begins at ~3:50:00).