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Allina/Abbott Northwestern reports on 340B savings, community investments and neighborhood programs
Summary
Allina Health representatives presented the annual 340B drug-pricing program update and the Abbott Northwestern memorandum of understanding with the city, detailing charity care, early childhood vision screening, a community solar project, workforce-diversity efforts and an impact-investment commitment.
Representatives from Allina Health and Abbott Northwestern presented the committee on April 9 about the 340B drug-pricing program, the hospital’s memorandum of understanding with the City of Minneapolis, and community investments supported by program savings.
Why it matters: 340B is a federal drug-pricing program administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that allows qualifying hospitals to purchase outpatient drugs at discounted rates; hospitals often use those savings to fund charity care, reduced-cost services and community programs. The committee received an annual report required by the hospital’s MOU with the city.
Tony Collins Kwong, director of system pharmacy strategic sourcing at Allina Health, said Abbott Northwestern served more than 200,000 patients in 2024 and that the hospital’s payer mix has shifted toward public insurance (reported as about 67% public, 33% private). Jeremy Enger, Allina’s 340B program manager, summarized the federal program and said the MOU is the local government acknowledgment required by HRSA that supports the hospital’s continued access to 340B discounts. Enger said the savings protect under-reimbursed outpatient services and enable community investments.
Allison Pence, director of community engagement at Allina Health, described community uses of program and institutional resources: an early youth vision-screening program that screened about 12,000 Minneapolis Public Schools students last year and provides on-site follow-up services (including glasses and referrals); design work and planned native healing spaces in Abbott Northwestern’s new campus development in response to community requests; a solar canopy project on the Purple Grama parking structure with roughly 2,000 panels expected to generate about 1.3 million kWh annually and provide community solar credits targeted to lower-income residents via a local cooperative; 20 construction workforce participants placed through Mortenson Construction’s on-the-job training as part of a construction workforce-diversity requirement; and a $30 million impact-investment commitment launched in 2021, with about $22 million closed or committed to community investees such as the Minnesota Fund, First Children’s Finance and Southside Community Health Services.
Council members asked about federal activity affecting 340B. Tony Collins Kwong acknowledged ongoing federal proposals and said Allina is monitoring potential legislative changes that could affect hospital access to 340B discounts and community programs; Allina offered to follow up with the committee with more details. Chair Jason Chavez directed the clerk to receive and file the report.
The presentation emphasized that 340B savings support local charity care and community programs and that the hospital’s MOU with the city documents commitments to serve uninsured and underinsured residents.
