By: Ted Slafsky

I am very excited to be writing my inaugural column for Verity Solutions’ blog.  I have a long-time friendship with Verity’s CEO George Puckett that spans close to three decades and have always admired and counted on the Verity team for their expertise on 340B matters.  I will be writing a monthly column for Verity and will also be speaking at events that the company hosts at 340B meetings.  For my first column, I thought it would be helpful to provide some insights on what to expect in Washington, D.C., and the states in 2023 when it comes to the 340B program.  Here are three key observations:

• Don’t Expect Major Healthcare Legislation to Pass in New Congress

Earlier this month, we witnessed a historic battle to elect the new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).  It took McCarthy 15 tries and several days to finally get elected by his GOP caucus.  This is first time since 1923 that the House has had to hold multiple ballots to elect its next speaker and McCarthy had to make major concessions to his right flank to finally get the support of 218 of his Republican colleagues. The GOP margin in the House is just four votes and if Rep. George Santos (R-NY) ends up having to resign over a variety of controversies, there is a good chance Democrats take back this suburban New York district that favored President Biden by 9 points in the 2020 election.

With such a narrow and fractious majority, it will be incredibly challenging for Speaker McCarthy to govern.  Moreover, Democrats gained an additional seat in the Senate, increasing its majority and the likelihood that many House bills will die in the upper chamber.  Major health care legislation and drug pricing bills have little or no chance of getting enacted in the next two years.  Nonetheless, as discussed further below, the 340B program will be under the microscope…

Read the full blog here.