Sally Greenberg, CEO of the National Consumers League, said hospital billing practices are ruining American lives and that the federal 340B drug pricing program is part of the problem, calling on Congress to step in with a federal solution.
"Don't let hospital billing ruin American lives," Greenberg said.
According to Greenberg's letter published by KFF Health News, NCL polling found that medical debt has affected most U.S. adults, with nearly half incurring this debt after receiving a surprise bill from a hospital or provider. When faced with medical debt, more than half of surveyed adults said they skipped future treatments or drained their savings. Greenberg also wrote that 340B hospitals pursue aggressive medical debt collection practices at higher rates than their non-340B counterparts, explicitly failing to meet their end of the deal in 340B. Hospitals with high shares of cancer patients continue to use some of the most aggressive medical debt collection tactics. She said Congress needs to step in and rein in these predatory medical debt collection practices, as hospitals with the privilege of greatly reduced drug prices have a responsibility to pass those discounts to patients, not hoard them, according to her letter in KFF Health News.
A 2024 report by the Alliance for Integrity and Reform of 340B found that 85 percent of disproportionate share hospitals earn more in 340B profit than they spend on charity care. In 2022, those hospitals earned $44 billion in 340B profit but spent only $18 billion on charity care, meaning just 42 cents of every dollar in 340B profit went back to patients, according to AIR340B.
Greenberg has served as CEO of the National Consumers League since 2007. The organization is America's oldest nonprofit consumer and worker advocacy group and was founded in 1899 to protect social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad, according to NCL.
