The 340B program allows participating hospitals to obtain certain outpatient medications for reduced costs. These 340B hospitals are generally eligible for the program based on serving a disproportionate share of low-income Medicare and Medicaid patients and other criteria. In June 2015, a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study compared per Medicare beneficiary hospital pharmacy outpatient drug spending at 340B drug spending to non-340B hospitals. This white paper updates a 2018 Milliman paper that used 2015 data and reported whether the same relationships exist in a commercially insured population. For this report, Milliman used a 2020 proprietary commercial claims data set and applied a methodology similar to the 2015 GAO report.

This report was commissioned by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).