The AAMC Nov. 27 submitted comments in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) notice to collect hospitals’ drug acquisition cost data for specified outpatient drugs purchased under the 340B Drug Pricing Program (340B Program). The AAMC does not believe CMS has the authority to target this data collection at hospitals participating in the 340B Program and called on CMS not to move forward with the collection process.
The AAMC believes that CMS may have prejudged the results of the data survey as it says in the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) calendar year (CY) 2020 final rule that “[w]e thus anticipate that the survey data collected for CY 2018 and 2019 will confirm that the ASP [average sales price] minus 22.5 percent is a conservative measure that overcompensates 340B hospitals” [see Washington Highlights, Nov. 8]. The comments continue, “Should CMS try to set payment rates based on the data collected as a result of this notice, it would have to engage in new rulemaking and make the data available at the time a change is proposed to provide stakeholders with the opportunity to analyze it and respond to any proposed change in the payment rate.”
Additionally, the AAMC commented that “CMS has grossly underestimated the expenditure of time and resources hospitals will incur in order to collect and submit the required data … To comply with this and other requirements set out in the notice, hospitals will likely be forced to redirect financial resources that would otherwise be used to care for low-income patients.”