{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-promotes-340b-program-to-help-alabama-hospitals/", "Tuberville Promotes 340B Program\u00a0to Help\u00a0Alabama Hospitals", "2025-10-23", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with witnesses during a Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing about the impacts of the 340B program on hospitals in Alabama. Sen. Tuberville noted the importance of these discounts to the day-to-day operation of many of Alabama\u2019s hospitals.\n\nThe witnesses included Michelle Rosenberg, Director of Health Care at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; Dr. Aditi Sen, Chief of the Health Policy Studies Unit at the Congressional Budget Office; and Dr. William Feldman, Physician and Health Policy Researcher at the University of California Los Angeles.\n\nRead Sen. Tuberville\u2019s remarks below or on YouTube or Rumble.\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman.\n\nThanks for being here today. Real quickly, the 340[B] Program is [one of] the only\u2014and I repeat only\u2014source of income for America\u2019s hospitals that isn\u2019t taxpayer funded. Taxpayers are carrying the whole load other than this here. We should be expanding this, not reforming it. I\u2019ve got a hospital, East Alabama [Medical Center], in Opelika, Alabama that shared with me that in 2025, they provided almost $100 million dollars in uninsured care. Majority of that was [for] illegals. During the same period, they received $70 million in 340B savings. In the past years, 340B revenue does not cover the loss from uncompensated care. Additionally, there is pressure to expand healthcare services all over my state. We\u2019re dropping beds. We are sinking. Thank goodness, we\u2019ve got the $50 billion coming for rural health care from the One Big Beautiful Bill. East Alabama [Medical Center], along with many hospitals, know that the 340B program is working as intended to help offset uninsured losses. The 340B program established a clear and fair expectation that pharmaceutical manufacturers want their drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid.\n\nMs. Rosenberg, would reforming 340B in a way that undermines [a] hospital\u2019s ability to provide for uninsured patients go against the program\u2019s original purpose?\u201d\n\nROSENBERG: \u201cThank you for the question. I would note [that] the statute doesn\u2019t specify what the purpose of the program is. What individuals have relied on is something in House report language for a bill that was similar to that implemented 340B program, which was to enable covered entities to stretch scarce federal resources, to reach more eligible patients and provide more comprehensive services.\n\nSo, it would seem that if that\u2019s the intent, then the 340B program is allowing entities to do that.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you. What other forms of discounts or financial assistance do at-risk hospitals receive that is not taxpayer funded? Do they receive anything?\u201d\n\nROSENBERG: \u201cI don\u2019t have full knowledge of all of those programs, but there\u2019s none that I\u2019m aware of.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201c83% of rural hospitals in my state operate at a loss. Think about that, 83%. If other states want to highlight hospital systems that are flushed with cash, [\u2026] reform efforts should be directed towards those. That\u2019s my opinion. You can\u2019t go towards people that are losing money already. Not towards states like mine that rely on 340B discounts for survival. We absolutely survive off [of] these. Without support [from] essential services such as mental health and substance abuse treatments, if this happens and we reform it and cut back, those all will disappear\u2014forcing rural patients to seek care at hospitals that are already barely getting by.\n\nWhat would meaningful reform look like for a state that is rural, poor, and has demonstrated that it is not abusing this program?\u201d\n\nROSENBERG: \u201cSo, our recommendations really focuses on HRSA\u2019s oversight of the program, and so that\u2019s making sure that the entities that participate are eligible to participate and making sure that they follow program requirements. So, don\u2019t divert drugs to individuals who aren\u2019t patients of the entity and also don\u2019t create duplicate discounts in which manufacturers are required to pay both a rebate under the Medicaid Rebate Program and the discounted 340B price.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you.\n\nDr. Sen, based on your research into how the 340B program affects hospital spending, how can we ensure that community health centers in my state continue using their 340B savings directly to benefit patients rather than losing resources to the larger systems or middlemen.\u201d\n\nSEN: \u201cThank you for that question. So, at the Congressional Budget Office, we would not recommend specific policy approaches. But I will say that for our work, better data on how covered entities are using 340B revenues could inform that policy discussion.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cWhat would you consider a wasteful or fraudulent program in a hospital using 340B. Have you seen any of those?\u201d\n\nSEN: \u201cTo date, we do not have the data to be able to track how 340B entities are using 340B revenues generated by their program. In general, [those] revenues enter the covered entities of general revenue pot, and we can\u2019t see exactly how they\u2019re using them.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cDr. Feldman, have you seen any fraudulent use of 340B? Do you have any examples?\u201d\n\nFELDMAN: \u201cI have not, Senator.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-promotes-340b-program-to-help-alabama-hospitals/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7863948121666908, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}