The draft bill – formally titled, the Supporting Underserved and Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Integrity Now and for the Future of 340B Act (SUSTAIN) – was released along with a letter to 340B stakeholders and an explanatory document with supplemental questions (see attachments below).

The Working Group consists of Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD). The Senators’ letter accompanying the draft states that the 340B program “provides a critical benefit to eligible health care providers that enables them to stretch federal resources to provide healthcare services for the patients they serve” and seeks to address stakeholder concerns about “ambiguity in the program” and the need for transparency to “ensure the program is serving eligible patients as originally intended.”

RWC-340B provided comments in July 2023; note that many of our suggestions are incorporated into the discussion draft. We believe the draft is a very good start at forging a reasonable middle ground between stakeholders long at odds on the 340B program.

We are eager for YOUR FEEDBACK as we plan to send the Senate Working Group a detailed response to the discussion draft and answer the supplemental questions, as applicable to Ryan White Clinics, in the coming weeks.

We will be working through our RWC-340B Advocacy Committee and ask that you provide any feedback on the proposal to our Legislative Counsel, Peggy Tighe at Peggy.Tighe@PowersLaw.com.

Thank you in advance for your insight.