The 30-year-old program that allows hospitals to buy drugs directly from manufacturers to avoid inflated prices, 340B, cost providers $43.9 billion in 2021, according to HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration.
Most of that spending — more than $34 billion — was from disproportionate share hospitals. Health center programs bought more than $2 billion worth of 340B drugs, children's hospitals about $1.3 billion and critical access hospitals nearly $621 million.
"For 2021, discounted purchases under the 340B program reached a record $43.9 billion — an astonishing $5.9 billion (+15.6 percent) higher than its 2020 counterpart," according to the Drug Channels Institute.