Committee weighs 340B reporting in H.202; hospitals warn some data requests are infeasible

At a March committee hearing, legislators reviewed proposed Section 3 of H.202 — language now being embedded in H.266 — that would require hospitals to file annual reports to the Green Mountain Care Board on participation in the federal 340B drug-pricing program.

The Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems told the committee it supports reporting but urged a Maine-style approach that yields useful high-level data without imposing undue administrative burden. “We do support reporting requirements in H.266. We really appreciate the committee’s effort on this,” said Devin Green of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.

The proposed section would ask hospitals to report items including: aggregated acquisition cost for 340B drugs, aggregated payment amounts received for those drugs, aggregated payments hospitals make to pharmacies and vendors, administrative and staffing costs tied to operating 340B, the number of claims by payer type, the hospital’s estimated annual savings from 340B, examples of top drugs purchased through 340B, and a description of internal oversight of the program.

Hospitals warned several of those items are difficult to produce from existing systems. Jonathan Reynolds, vice president of clinical…