Wellness That Matters: Black Health News & Community Care
- BWHI urges reform of the 340B Drug Pricing Program to protect marginalized patients, especially Black women and girls.
- Program expansion allowed providers to profit without requiring savings to be passed on to patients, harming affordability.
- 340B growth fueled hospital consolidation and contract pharmacy use, redirecting resources toward wealthier communities.
- BWHI calls for standardized transparency, accountability, and prioritization of true safety-net providers and underserved communities.
- Lawmakers should act to curb hospital profiteering, enhance transparency, and restore 340B’s mission for Black women and families.
WASHINGTON (October 23, 2025) — Today, the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) released the following statement in advance of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s Oct. 23 hearing on the 340B Drug Pricing Program:
“The Senate HELP Committee’s review of the 340B Drug Pricing Program couldn’t have come at a better time. As the Congressional Budget Office made clear in a recent report, the program’s unchecked expansion is harming the marginalized patients, particularly Black women and girls, it was meant to help.
“Congress created the 340B program in 1992 to help safety-net hospitals and clinics save on prescription drug purchases, allowing them to reinvest in affordable care for low-income and uninsured patients. But as the CBO’s report highlights, there is no requirement that providers pass along their savings to patients, so providers can instead profit by prescribing higher-cost medications that generate larger discounts, then charging patients and insurers marked-up prices.
“340B hospitals have responded to these unregulated incentives by increasing consolidation and utilization of contract pharmacies. According to the CBO’s report, this has pushed annual 340B drug spending to historic heights — almost $44 billion in 2021, up from $6.6 billion in 2010 — while diverting provider resources toward wealthier, more profitable neighborhoods.
“This blatant lack of program integrity cannot continue. BWHI calls for a comprehensive, three-pronged approach to 340B program reform: standardize 340B program transparency and accountability requirements; prioritize true-safety net providers and underserved communities; and ensure underserved communities can access affordable care and medication. All 340B entities and their affiliates, including private entities, third party providers, and pharmacy benefit managers, must be held to the same standards of accountability as federally qualified health clinics and other community clinics.
“For Black women, this lack of accountability has severe consequences. Black women face disproportionately higher rates of chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease and obesity, and have historically made up an outsized share of the patients served by safety-net hospitals. When hospitals exploit the 340B program to mark up care for vulnerable patients and take resources away from minority communities, Black women are left with higher health costs and reduced access to lifesaving medicines.
“This week’s Senate HELP Committee hearing presents a timely opportunity for lawmakers to confront the 340B program’s shortcomings. We urge lawmakers to follow this hearing with decisive reforms to curb hospital profiteering and enhance transparency, so that the program achieves the original goal of improving affordability for underserved communities, including Black women and our families.”
About the Black Women’s Health Imperative: The Black Women’s Health Imperative is a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the health and well-being of Black women and girls. With a 40-year history of groundbreaking advocacy and research, BWHI remains committed to addressing the unique health challenges faced by Black women and ensuring their voices are heard in healthcare policy and practice.
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