Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Hearing is Next Step for 340B Reform The […]
The 340B Drug Discount Program was given the laudable goal of helping federally funded clinics and public hospitals that serve a large uninsured population cover the cost of drugs and provide discounts to patients. However, like many other well-intended federal programs 340B has gone off the rails due to the lack of clear intent and […]
The establishment of well-intentioned programs that fail to achieve their objectives and waste taxpayer dollars is an unfortunately frequent occurrence in the federal government. A prominent example of such an outcome is the 340B program, created by Section 340B of the Public Health Service Act of 1992, which requires pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in Medicaid to […]
President Trump has made lowering drug prices and reducing healthcare costs for Americans a top priority of his second term, along with encouraging more biopharmaceutical investment and innovation in the U.S. Citizens Against Government Waste suggests that he can achieve both objectives without imposing price controls, which includes Most Favored Nation (MFN) polices, reforming the […]
The 340B Drug Discount Program was created in 1992 and requires pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in Medicaid to sell drugs to “Covered Entities” (CEs), including non-profit hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic, at discounts of 20 to 50 percent. The program grew from $9 billion in 2014 to $66 billion in 2023, making it the second-largest federal […]
Federal healthcare programs are often well-intended but end up costing more than expected and become subject to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. One of the best (or worst) examples of such a result is the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The lack of clear intent […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has confirmed what the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) has long been saying about the 340B drug discount program. The September 9, 2025, CBO report noted that 340B has grown substantially and increases costs for taxpayers. The CBO report also underscores several reasons why reforms to the 340B […]
The 340B Drug Discount Program was created in 1992 to help federally funded clinics and public hospitals that serve a large uninsured population cover the cost of drugs and provide discounts to patients. But the lack of guardrails on the program and failure to define a patient has led to it being abused by hospitals […]
The federal 340B Drug Pricing Program was intended to provide discounts on drugs to patients but the lack of a clear intent and patient definition, along with inadequate oversight, has led to the program being exploited by hospitals and contract pharmacies to generate millions of dollars in profit. The discounts are supposed to be provided […]
This Week in Waste – May 9, 2025 Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state and local levels of government, and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior. CAGW Files Comments to Department of Commerce […]
