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June 26, 2018The 340B Drug Discount Program offers qualified hospitals deeply discounted rates on drugs, but many aren’t using the program to its maximum benefit. A 340B pricing analysis from an experienced healthcare auditor can reveal several errors in your drug pricing and prevent you from leaving money on the table. Let’s take a look.
340B Program Challenges
Just because your health system is eligible for 340B doesn’t mean it’s a turnkey process. The government and drug manufacturers adjust the pricing guidelines for 340B products every quarter, keeping back-office teams on their toes to update each item’s pricing as needed. That creates a lot of room for error, as not updating even a handful of items can result in major losses for the hospital.
340B Pricing Analysis
The Audit Group performs a thorough analysis of 340B hospitals’ purchases to identify pricing discrepancies and pursue recovery, if necessary. The Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) reports that nearly 70% of the health systems audited are found to have one or more 340B infractions, so even if you think your system is fully compliant, it’s worth a second look.
Our trained auditors will come in and review all your drug purchases over the last quarter and cross-reference it with the most recent 340B pricing. If you did overpay for certain products, we’ll work with pharmacy distributors to credit the difference to your account.
Benefits of a 340B Pricing Analysis
Hospitals that qualify for 340B pricing often don’t have the time or staffing capacity to stay on top of the ever-changing pricing trends. When a distributor changes item pricing, a hospital won’t make the correct change in lockstep due to a lack of process, lack of staff or competing priorities. A 340B pricing analysis from a healthcare auditor will free up your team to focus on other tasks while ensuring you maximize your program benefits.
Benefits of an External Healthcare Audit
Keeping your health system in full compliance with current regulations and optimizing your cash flow is not one, but several full-time jobs. In our experience, hospitals don’t know what they don’t know–and they don’t have time to figure it out. For years, The Audit Group has worked with healthcare clients to streamline and automate their process while discovering creative ways to improve their cash flows. Our thorough, data-driven approaches uncover more opportunities than most in-house audits without costing any productivity.
Better 340B pricing management ensures that your health system optimizes federal dollars and takes advantage of every opportunity to improve the bottom line. If your system qualifies for 340B pricing, let our auditing team analyze your operations and help you use the program to its full potential.