Health Center reducing prescription discounts
Money is running out for 340B program
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Increased costs prompted a vote by the Flint Hills Community Health Center board of directors to reduce the amount of the discount associated with 340B subsidized prescriptions by $2.
The board voted unanimously during its regular meeting Tuesday afternoon to approve the reduction in the discount to consumers who get discounts under the program.
Lougene Marsh, executive director of the health center, said the center received an initial state grant of $70,000 in 2005. This fiscal year, that was reduced to $55,000. An additional $20,000 was awarded from private foundations that came through the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved to help fund the program in 2006 and 2007.
“This funding really runs out at the end of 2007,” Marsh said.
Marsh said the way the program works now is that patients whose incomes are less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level pay $1 of the $5 dispensing fee, leaving the health center to pay the remaining $4. If the cost of the medication is more than $3, the health center pays any amount above.
For patients whose incomes are between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, the heath center was paying $2 of the $5 dispensing fee, leaving the patient to pay $3. If the cost of the medication was over $20 then health center picked up the rest of the amount.
With the reduction in funding, the health center would be left with about a $57,000 shortfall if changes weren’t made in the discounts.
“We felt like we needed to really re-visit the discounts,” Marsh said.
The finance committee of the health center came up with the solution of reducing the amount of discount for the categories by $2.
“We would not reduce the discount of the price of the prescription,” Marsh said.
This change would leave the health center with an estimated $37,000 out-of-pocket expenses instead of the $57,000 figure.
The board voted to approve the change with the stipulation that it will be evaluated at the end of the first quarter of 2008.
“We just really need to watch this over the next three months,” Marsh said.
In other matters:
F November losses at the health center were $62,271, which is $17,185.43 less than the budgeted loss.
F The year-to-date loss is $30,240.37, which is well below the budgeted loss of $107,724.21 for the year.
F Because of November’s loss, board members decided to stick with last month’s vote to give employees a one percent cost-of-living raise effective Jan. 1. Board members said they would look at November’s budget to see if more could be given, but with a $62,000 loss for November, they decided against it. The center’s financial reports will be reviewed again at the end of June.