Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), released a final rule to increase access to affordable insulin and injectable epinephrine for low-income Americans served by health centers nationwide.
"The Health Center Program provides preventive and primary care services to nearly 30 million medically underserved people annually, including nearly 3 million people with diabetes," said HRSA Administrator Tom Engels. "Expanding affordable access to lifesaving medications like insulin and injectable epinephrine will significantly improve the health status of health center patients with chronic conditions."
In response to President Trump's Executive Order 13937, this final rule ensures future health center grants available under section 330(e) of the Public Health Service Act are conditioned upon health centers that make insulin and/or injectable epinephrine available to their patients having established practices to make insulin and injectable epinephrine available at or below the discounted price they have paid under the 340B Drug Pricing Program. These discounted drugs will be available to health center patients with low incomes, who also have a high cost sharing requirement for either insulin or injectable epinephrine, have a high unmet deductible, or have no health insurance.
View the text of the final rule and the final rule fact sheet (PDF - 63 KB).
For more information about HRSA's Bureau of Primary Health Care, visit: https://bphc.hrsa.gov.
For more information about HRSA's 340B Drug Pricing Program, visit: https://www.hrsa.gov/opa.