The 340B Program and CommonSpirit Health: The Impact on our Vulnerable Populations

1. Impacting the care of our most vulnerable patient populations:

The 340B Program allows our hospitals and clinics to champion the needs of our most vulnerable patient populations and advocate for their equitable access to high-quality, evidence-based health care. This includes a new diabetic in suburban Arkansas learning how to self-administer insulin, a mother struggling with post-partum depression in the Central Valley of California, and a veteran in rural Texas going blind with age-related macular degeneration. These individuals, and many, many more, are able to receive care, including life-saving medications, from CommonSpirit Health pharmacies participating in the 340B Program. And they are able to benefit from the innovative population-health programs, from virtual mental health patient navigation to comprehensive managed care for diabetes, that are improving care access and quality across the CommonSpirit Health enterprise.

2. Impacting our national network of safety-net hospitals and clinics:

Over 115 CommonSpirit Health hospitals, clinics, and infusion centers participate in the 340B Program, from rural community hospitals in the Midwest to large urban safety-net hospitals on the West Coast:
As a critical access hospital, St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Little Falls, MN provides compassionate, inclusive, and life-saving care to thousands of hard-working community members in rural Minnesota. Clinicians at St. Gabriel’s have also stood up a model treatment program for patients struggling with addiction to opioids, providing life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder to folks that would otherwise be out of luck.
St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach, CA has a long history of opening its doors to those in need. Serving a particularly underserved and economically disadvantaged urban population in Southern California, St. Mary’s is committed to assuring equitable access for all to high-quality health care. This includes the CARE Center, a pioneering and comprehensive HIV treatment program founded at the rise of the AIDS crisis in 1986 that continues to provide life-saving care to the Long Beach community, regardless of ability to pay.
These CommonSpirit Health care sites, and many others, provide critical services for some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. The 340B Program allows these hospitals, clinics, and infusion centers to continue to be vital safety-net resources and national advocates for and leaders of equitable, holistic care.

3. Impacting the many diverse communities that we serve across this country:

CommonSpirit Health is committed to supporting the communities that it serves, through community benefits, philanthropy, and service. We acknowledge that health is not simply the absence of disease but rather a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. That requires an acknowledgment and tackling of the social determinants of health. We can’t ignore the plight of homelessness and social isolation. Through cost-savings from the 340B Program, CommonSpirit Health is able to take on these social determinants through community investments, from supporting permanent supportive housing for individuals experiencing homelessness to reducing behavioral health stigma through providing Mental Health First Aid trainings in many of the communities we serve.