Chico Enterprise-Record: Rural health care crisis screams for more transparency

By Julie Gill Shuffield, Patients Come First California’s Executive Director

As local regional hospitals like Oroville Hospital, Glenn Medical Center and others grapple with the reality of bankruptcy or closure, rural health care is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of large health systems. Increasing demand in the face of decreasing supply always results in higher costs. As legislators and advocates for the state’s underserved populations call for solutions, however, they’re overlooking two easy options that can make a big difference.

One of the biggest problems involves misuse of a program meant to make medications more affordable – the “340B Program.”  It was created to help the most vulnerable get access to medicines by providing covered entities (mostly rural or safety-net hospitals) with discounted drugs. Due to a lack of transparency, however, some large players in the healthcare system are choosing to profit at the expense of patients. As rural counties face the prospect of more consolidation this becomes an even bigger concern.

These bad actors buy deeply discounted prescription drugs and instead of passing the savings to patients, they charge higher prices and pocket the difference. There’s very little evidence that any financial relief from 340B has benefited patients, but many examples of hospitals and contracted pharmacies benefiting from the profits. A study by the Drug Channels Institute estimated CVS Health, Walgreens, Cigna, and UnitedHealth collectively made $3.2B and $2.9B in 2022 and 2023, respectively, in profits from the 340B Program.

Read the full op-ed in Chico Enterprise-Record here.